Lib Dems out-fundraise Labour 3:1 from non-trade union sources

The first set of donation figures for the 2017 general election are in, and unsurprisingly the Conservatives top the league.

But look into the details and you find this:

• Liberal Democrat fundraising – £180,000
• Labour fundraising excluding trade unions – £61,300
• Labour fundraising including trade unions – £2.7 million

(These donation figures are for donations about the threshold for declaring to the Electoral Commission.)

Aside from showing how well the Liberal Democrat fundraising operation is going compared to Labour’s, these figures also illustrate the enormous dependence on trade union funds for Jeremy Corbyn. And perhaps also therefore that the question will not be whether Corbyn wants to stay as leader next month, but whether a small number of trade union officials will want him to stay?

(I say trade union officials because the levels of party support amongst trade unions shows that the near-uniformity of political trade union backing for Labour does not reflect the actual views of trade unionists. One of the most deeply entrenched pieces of mis-representation in British politics is the way trade union leaders do not represent the views of their members when it comes to choosing which parties to support.)