Tory donations fall despite video game entrepreneur’s £1m gift

Donations to the Conservatives fell between April and June this year as parties declared £11 million in support, figures from the Electoral Commission have shown.

The Tories received £2.9 million in private donations in the second quarter of the year, down from £3.4 million in the first three months of 2025.

A third of the Conservatives’ total came in the form of a £1 million donation from video game entrepreneur Jez San, following an earlier £1 million gift to the party in February.

The party also received £250,000 from its current treasurer, Graham Edwards, and another £200,000 from businessman Kamal Pankhania, half personally and half through one of his companies, Westcombe Homes.

Despite the fall in donations, the Conservatives still out-raised Labour, which received £2.6 million in donations, slightly more than the £2.4 million it declared between January and March.

More than half of that figure came from trade unions, including £746,000 from Unite, which has threatened to “re-examine” its relationship with Labour over the Government’s handling of a long-running strike by refuse workers in Birmingham.

Other donations included £442,000 from the GMB union, £246,000 from Usdaw and £106,000 from the Communication Workers Union.

Labour’s largest private donation during the period came in the form of £80,000 from property company Activepine, owned by Birmingham-based businessman Maqbool Ahmed.

Donations to the Liberal Democrats fell by around half, to just £773,597, while despite Reform UK’s consistent lead in the polls, donations to Nigel Farage’s party remained relatively steady at £1.4 million.

Reform’s donations, slightly down from the £1.5 million in the previous three months, included £300,000 from the party’s treasurer, Nick Candy, and £200,000 from Lebanese-born businessman Bassim Haidar, who claimed last year he planned to leave the UK over plans to scrap the non-dom tax status.

Mr Farage’s party also accepted £100,000 from Greybull Capital, the company which bought a struggling British Steel in 2019 before selling it to Chinese company Jingye later that year.

Reform had previously returned a £100,000 donation from Bellcave Ltd after it was deemed impermissible. Bellcave is owned by Marc Meyohas, one of the owners of Greybull.

The Conservatives said Reform had “once again fallen short”, claiming donors were “clearly expressing continued hesitancy about their ongoing internal mess and billions in unfunded spending commitments”.

Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake said the figures “underline the continued strength of support behind the Conservative Party”, adding: “We are building momentum quarter after quarter, and it is clear that people recognise and believe in Kemi’s mission of Conservative renewal.”

Parties must declare all donations of more than £11,180, as well as smaller donations that add up to more than this figure.