Billionaires, corporate lobbyists, a representative of King Charles, companies and individuals linked to tax havens, estate owners who have broken rules around taxpayer subsidies, and a “dark money” trust are among donors to Scotland’s political parties, a major Ferret investigation has found.
Exclusive analysis by The Ferret found a total of more than £3.5m in donations has been declared by Scottish parties in the last three years – a war chest helping them fight the general election campaign.
We looked at Electoral Commission data on donations given to Scotland’s parties and MPs since the last Holyrood election on 11 May 2021, noting the largest, or most prominent donors. Some have switched political allegiances. Others are funding multiple parties.
Parties rely on donations as part of the political process. But one policy expert warned some donors “expect a payback on support”, while a transparency group urged for a donations cap to prevent undue influence from the rich and powerful.
Under electoral laws, a donation is money, goods or services worth over £500 and given freely to a party, including property, sponsorship, or use of office space. There is no limit to how much a donor can give.
Our analysis found that Scottish Labour received £1.2m – a third of all donations and the most of any Scottish party.
It was followed by the Scottish Liberal Democrats which received £1.1m or 31 per cent, the SNP, which raised £721,000 (21 per cent), the Scottish Conservatives which received donations worth £396,000 (11 per cent), and the Scottish Greens which netted £139,000 (four per cent).
This does not include donations given to parties south of the border, which could be redistributed to their Scottish arms.
Scottish Labour
The surge in Scottish Labour’s donations mirrors its recent swell in support, which is on par with or ahead of the SNP, according to recent polls. Some former Tory-backing donors have jumped ship to Labour, while others are funding multiple parties.
Labour donors include Renfrewshire gas generator firm, Peak Scientific Holdings, and its parent, Dusty TLP, which gave the party £400,000 – plus £100,000 to UK Labour. It also bankrolls the Lib Dems, and funded the UK Tories until 2020.
The firms “are not at liberty to disclose the reason for party donations”, a spokesperson said.
Paul McManus, drummer in Scots rock band Gun and a £100,000 funder of a public legal fight against Glasgow’s Low Emission Zone, gave the party £130,000.
Labour also netted £114,000 from trade unions, including Unite and Unison, despite the former refusing to back Keir Starmer’s manifesto over alleged weak protections for workers’ rights and oil and gas jobs.
Labour-linked consultancy firms are also funding the party. Arden Strategies, a London PR firm founded by former party leader Jim Murphy, handed £20,000 to the Scottish and UK parties. It does not publish a list of clients, but provides “comprehensive mapping and analysis of political stakeholders that share your company’s interests”.
Arden staff include former cabinet ministers, Tory advisors and a Lib Dem organiser. Blair McDougall, the former head of Better Together, and Labour’s East Renfrewshire candidate, worked for Arden before the election.
Francesca Perrin, a director of Starmerite think tank, Labour Together, gave £10,000 to the party’s East Kilbride branch. Her father, supermarket tycoon Lord Sainsbury, has donated £61m to political causes since 2001, including to the Labour, Lib Dem and Tory parties.
PR firms Pentland Communications – the vast majority of whose clients are house building firms – and Stratcom, also donated. The latter counts Scottish Labour’s former general secretary, Brian Roy – and current adviser to MSP Mark Griffin – as a senior adviser.
Poonam Gupta gave £3,500 to Labour’s Inverclyde branch. Her Greenock company, which she and her husband own via a tax haven, funded the UK Tories until March, and gave £40,000 to Anas Sarwar’s first leadership bid.
Labour’s top target seats include Lothian East, where Douglas Alexander, a former minister in the Blair and Brown governments, is standing. His donors include David Giampaolo, head of a London invitation-only membership club, who gave £3,000. Once called London’s “most networked man”, Giampaolo co-wrote a 2012 article which defended “legitimate tax avoidance” from companies.
Labour also hopes to retain Rutherglen and Hamilton West, which it won from the SNP in last year’s by-election. Incumbent Michael Shanks received the most donations of any Scottish Labour politician – £20,000 from Labour Together and £3,900 from millionaire tycoon and Labour peer, Willie Haughey.
Scottish Liberal Democrats
Donations racked up by the Lib Dems rival that of Labour. More than a fifth (£226,000) went to its Highlands branch, where the party performs well. It also attracts donors who back other parties.
Peak Scientific – a Labour and former Tory donor – also gave it £410,000. Another £52,000 came from the Scottish Liberal Club, which gives the party reduced rent on its Edinburgh premises.
Individual backers include Nick Clegg, the former party leader and deputy prime minister during the Tory-led coalition government, who gave £20,000.
Jeremy Hosking, a millionaire London financier, handed £10,000 to the party’s Highland branch, but has also given £10m to the Tories, Reform UK, Lawrence Fox’s Reclaim Party, former prime minister Liz Truss, and pro-Brexit groups over the years.
His abandoned bid to buy Kinloch Castle on Rum was backed by Lib Dem Highland candidate and former Tory donor, Angus MacDonald. MacDonald also gave £22,000 to the Highland branch.
Rupert Soames, grandson of wartime Tory prime minister Winston Churchill, donated £5,000 to MacDonald, who is his friend. Soames is the former boss of Serco, an outsourcing firm which won an estimated £10bn of contracts under Tory governments, including in defence and asylum housing.
Scottish Conservatives
Despite its strong record of fundraising, the Scottish Tories have shed support from donors as the party has plummeted in the polls. More than half of its funds (£223,000) came from the Scottish Unionist Association Trust (SUAT), via the UK party.
In 2018, The Ferret found many inconsistencies in SUAT’s financial reporting. This led to a 14-month probe by the Electoral Commision, which found the trust had broken electoral laws, and fined it.
Our investigation forced the “dark money” trust to reveal its assets and members, which led a high profile trustee – and Holyrood lobbyist – to resign.
Millionaire banker Henry Angest, who once claimed £144,000 of taxpayer subsidies in a year for his Perthshire estate via an offshore tax haven, gave £7,000 to the Tory Perth and Kinross branch.
London’s Cayzer Trust Company Ltd, owned by the billionaire financier Cayzer family, gave £5,000 to the Dumfries and Galloway Tories, where Mundell hopes to retake his Dumfriesshire seat. Mundell received £42,500 – the most in individual donations of any Scottish Tory politician.
Donors include members of the Keswick family who, as The Ferret reported earlier this month, made their fortune via a tax haven-registered firm. Peter Landale, who owns Dalswinton Estate in Dumfriesshire, donated to Mundell and gave £50,000 to the UK Tories.
Lord David Johnstone, deputy lieutenant of Dumfries – a local representative of the King – also gave to Mundell. We previously revealed that his business partnership’s estate received £1.7m in taxpayer handouts, but broke subsidy rules 17 times.
The SNP
Concerns over the police investigation into the alleged embezzlement of party funds has been blamed for weak SNP fundraising efforts, with not a single big donation in 2024.
Some 78 per cent of its donations came from the bequests of deceased supporters, with £296,000 (41 per cent) from a single person. Christine Hartness, a long-time backer and lottery winner, donated £14,000 via her Cor Unum firm.
An SNP spokesperson said the party was “running a people-powered campaign” with “activists campaigning across the country”.
Scottish Greens
Apart from £8,000 given by Highlands and Islands co-convenor, Anne Thomas, all big donations to the Greens came from its MSPs’ own pockets. The party has never won a Westminster seat.
“The Scottish Greens aren’t funded by big business or billionaires,” said a spokesperson. “We’re proud to be funded by thousands of members and supporters in communities all across Scotland.”
Scottish company UK donations
We also analysed the £2.4m given to UK parties since the last general election by organisations registered in Scotland.
Fossil fuel industry figures were among the biggest donors.
Aberdeen oil tycoon Alasdair Locke, who helped fund the leadership bid of Douglas Ross, gave £500,000 to the Tories.
In January, we revealed that his sporting and farming estate in Moray broke rural subsidy rules while having claimed £3m from the taxpayer.
Aberdeen’s Balmoral Group Holdings, which offers oil and gas technology and services, gave £335,000 to the Tories, and £10,000 to Labour.
Dow Investments PLC, owned by the London-based Scottish businessman, Robert Kilgour, gave £212,000 to the Tories. Kilgour told The Ferret that his £5,000 donation to the Lib Dems’ Highland branch was to back a local candidate, adding that he is a friend of party leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton.
Flamingo Land, the company behind a Loch Lomond resort bid with nearly 100,000 rejections, gave £50,000 to the Tories. Earlier in June, we highlighted the company’s alleged failure to pay all staff a minimum wage. It claimed “a processing issue” impacting a small number of higher paid workers.
A firm linked to Michelle Mone’s husband, Doug Barrowman, also gave £50,000 to the Tories, as revealed by Democracy For Sale. The donation was made just months after a company controlled by the couple was given a £203m government contract, which is facing an official fraud investigation.
Some donors to Scotland’s parties ‘expect a payback’
James Mitchell, a professor of public policy at Edinburgh university, believes donor motivations range from genuine political support to relationship-building with power.
“Labour is attracting most financial support in large measure because it is on the rise and now has a serious prospect of forming a government in Holyrood,” Mitchell said. “There will also be funders who expect a payback on support.”
But he also called for more transparency around donations.
Juliet Swann of Transparency International UK warned that “bigger and bigger donations flowing into Scottish political parties” and that Scotland should not follow “Westminster’s lead in its increasing reliance on big donors”.
She added: “A cap on individual donations to politicians and political parties is a vital first step in reducing the grip of big donors in Scotland and restoring the public’s trust that democracy works for everyone and not just those with the deepest pockets.”
Every donor and party named in this article was approached for comment.
Additional data analysis by Petra Matijevic.
Main image credit: Khwanchai Phanthong. Via Pexels.
This Ferret story was also published in the Sunday National. Our partnerships with other media help us reach new audiences and become more sustainable as a media co-op. Join us to read all our stories and tell us what we should investigate next.
As the general election approaches, The Ferret is diving deep into the influence of conspiracy theories, disinformation, and culture wars on political discourse. Have you come across falsehoods or conspiracies shared by candidates, political parties, or viral memes? We want to hear from you! Get in touch at contact@theferret.scot, and we will take a look.
Help us continue our vital work by becoming a Ferret member today or making a one-off donation. Your support enables us to hold power to account and keep the truth at the forefront of the election conversation.
