I knew we'd get back to the trade unions again. As many of us have said before, the Labour Party has to be financed by somebody, as does the Conservative Party:
The Labour Party's biggest financial support comes from unions. Since 2010 Unite's donation represented 20% of the total amount. Other unions, such as Unison, GMB and USDAW also make significant contributions. Donations from companies are 3% of the total. Individual donations are 7% of the total with only 13 out of 230 being for more than £50,000. The biggest donor by far is John Mills, founder of JML which markets products direct to consumers, (£1,647m).
The Conservative Party's biggest financial support comes from individual donations, which represent 62%, the biggest donations coming from (in descending order) Michael Farmer, the founder of RK Capital Management (a hedge fund) (2,191m.), property multi-millionaire David Rowland (£1.279), May Makhouzi, wife of the billionaire Fouad Makhouzi who was at the centre of the Jonathan Aitken arms scandal (£908,000), and Stanley Fink, the boss of the Man Group (hedge fund) (£692,000).
I don't know why it is seen by some as more acceptable that a party's donations come largely from individuals connected to the financial, property and arms sectors but it is less acceptable that another party's donations come largely from trades unions.