THIRTY-SEVEN million pounds – that’s how much the Tories collected in donations over the three months to the end of last year.
The period includes the snap General Election that saw Johnson increase his party’s majority, despite plummeting results in Scotland.
The astonishing sum is more than the £31m taken in by every other party put together.
It is reported in the latest set of figures from the elections watchdog, which has revealed how the last quarter of December 2019 marked a new record in donations to parties. The total given to 14 different parties across the UK is a massive £28m than the previous high, which was set in 2017.
Louise Edwards of the Electoral Commission said: “In the final three months of 2019, political parties reported accepting the highest value of donations in one quarter since our records began.
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“While there is no limit to the value of donations political parties can accept, spending rules are in place during elections to keep the campaign fair.”
Only donations larger than £7500 are included in the official figures, which are published at regular intervals.
The Tories’ takings – which were, as with other parties, topped up with an allocation of public funds – far outstripped their rivals.
Even the party with the second highest donations – the LibDems – lagged far behind on £13.3m from private donors.
Labour collected only £9.8m before public funds took them to £10.6m.
In contrast, the SNP’s donations totalled only £54,170, with additional public funds boosting that to £213,060.
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, which did not win a single seat, drew £7.1m from donors.
A breakdown of the accounts shows how £3.2m was given to the Tories by companies linked to JCB.
In the run-up to the vote, Johnson used one of its vehicles to drive through a wall of foam bricks as he pledged a win for him would ensure the government would “get Brexit done”.
Businessman Peter Hargreaves, a prominent Brexiteer, made three donations of £1m with theatre tycoon John Gore and property firm Bridgemere UK.
Unite the Union was Labour’s biggest benefactor, supplying £3.5m.
Unison, another trade union, contributed £741,000, with Usdaw paying in £500,000.
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Meanwhile, £6m of that collected by the Brexit Party came from businessman Christopher Harborne.
However, the largest single donation went to the LibDems, with ex-Sainsbury’s supermarkets chairman Lord Sainsbury gifting that party £8m.
The move by the ex-Labour minister is also the biggest individual donation recorded by the Electoral Commission since it was established in 2001.
Edwards, the director of regulation at the watchdog, said: “The value of the donations accepted by parties in the last quarter exceeded the previous high, from 2017, by almost £28m.”
Elsewhere, the Green Party of England and Wales reported £381,300 in large donations.
And Plaid Cymru of Wales revealed it had accepted donations worth a total of £70,000.
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