The Labour Party’s total debts now stand at £16.6 million
Despite a record number of donations in the run-up to the general elections, Labour currently has the highest debt of any of the major British political parties, at around £10 million. The level of debt within Labour is now so severe that John Prescott, who was the party’s former deputy minister, warned that the party could risk facing bankruptcy unless it made clear steps to reduce its spending on campaigns.
This is in stark contrast to figures for the Conservative Party, which has debts running at less than a third of Labour’s, at £2.81 million. The Liberal Democrats’debt figure of less than half a million pounds is just five percent of that of Labour, although the Conservatives were the only party to reduce their overall debts in the last year. The Scottish National Party (SNP) stabilised its debts at £484,500, although like the Liberal Democrats, they are a much smaller party than Labour and the Conservatives. When taking into account overdraft limits, Labour’s debt is an astonishing £16.6 million, followed by the Conservatives at £13 million, the Liberal Democrats at £1.6 million and the SNP at around £0.8 million.
Despite Labour’s inability to Improve Credit Score they do still gain large donations from their supporters. However, in terms of donations, it was the Conservative Party which had received the most funding. They benefitted from £12.3 million in donations from various groups and individuals, including a number of MPs. Labour received £10.9 million, while the Liberal Democrats received £2 million and the SNP just under £0.3 million. The SNP have been highly critical of Labour, suggesting that they had not recorded their donations from a major pre-election fundraising initiative in Glasgow, led by then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Glasgow City Council’s SNP leader, James Dornan, accused Gordon Brown of bankrupting his own party and indeed the country.
Peter Wishart, the Perth and North Perthshire SNP MP, accused Labour of running their finances as disastrously as they ran the British economy. He also said that this would not bode well for the party at the next election, especially when they were still struggling to finish payments for their spending on the previous general election. He suggested that this help the SNP gain more votes in next year’s Holyrood election.
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