Jon Trickett calls on Keir Starmer to publish campaign donations

Update, 4.30pm: The latest tranche of Starmer’s donations have now been published by the parliamentary website, and can be found here.

Jon Trickett has called on Labour leadership candidate Keir Starmer to publish the donations made to his campaign, saying that to do so after people have voted is “undemocratic”.

Ballots are open and voting is currently taking place to elect the next Labour leader. Both of Starmer’s rivals – Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy – have released funding lists.

Trickett has today called on the Camden MP to do the same, and said that voters deserve to know the details of the candidate’s backers “before they cast their vote”.

He said: “Keir Starmer promised last week that he would publish his donations yesterday but there is still no sign of them. We need to put an end to the secrecy surrounding political donations, which means political donations being declared in real time.

“Whether it’s in general elections or internal party elections, delaying publishing donations until the vast majority of people have voted is entirely undemocratic. Voters deserve to know what lies behind the candidates they are being asked to vote for, before they cast their vote, not afterwards.”

Long-Bailey was the first of the Labour leadership contenders to publish her funding on her website, followed shortly afterwards by Nandy.

A source on Starmer’s campaign said that the donations have been registered with the parliamentary authority under its processes, as required by the national executive committee (NEC).

They added: “And the regular reminder that Jon is a member of the NEC so knows how this process works.”

The Holborn and St Pancras said last week that the “next tranche” of information would “probably” be published on the parliamentary site on Monday, yesterday.

As yet, his register of interests page has not been updated and he has not issued an independent release through his own campaign website.

Voting in the leader and deputy contests will continue until April 2nd – however it is thought that the vast majority of those who vote do so shortly after the ballots open.