Unions help Labour to post £2.7m in donations in a single week

Labour brought in £2.7m in donations in the crucial first week of May as prominent businessmen continued to pour money into the Conservative Party.

The bulk of Labour’s donor income came from trade unions with Unite contributing more than £2.3m, according to figures published by the Electoral Commission today.

Len McCluskey, general secretary of Britain’s biggest union, has been one of the biggest supporters of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. This week he appeared to cast doubt on the party’s prospects at the general election before saying journalists had taken his words out of context and declaring “there is everything to play for”.

The Tories were given £4.1m in the same period with the majority of the money coming from entrepreneurs and the City.

Today’s update showed Unite, the Communication Workers Union, GMB and the RMT all contributed to Labour between May 3 and May 9.

Labour declared £2.683m of income made up from the following:

Unite: £2.36m.

Communication Workers Union: £175,000.

GMB: £62,000.

RMT: £25,000.

Peter Hearn: £36,300.

Mohammed Husain: £25,000.