Donations to the Conservative Party are continuing to outstrip those to Labour ahead of the general election, expected in spring, according to the Electoral Commission.
David Cameron's party received £5,269,186 in the third quarter of 2009 –between July and September – while Labour was gifted just £3,045,377.
The Liberal Democrats were given £816,663. Overall, donations to political parties for the quarter stood
at slightly more than £9.5m.
That was down on the £13.2m received between April and June. That figure was higher than usual with the European elections in May.
The majority of Labour's donations – £2,397,573 – came from trade unions, £202,557 was from individuals and £194,543 from companies. Labour's biggest donors were Unison (£760,825), and Unite's Amicus (£601,053) and TGWU (£305,150) sections.
The Tories raised £3,236,828 from individual donors, including £252,000 from hedge fund manager Michael Farmer, £250,000 from engineering tycoon Jeffrey Whaley and £223,000 from property developer David Rowland. Another £1,635,127 came from companies, including £250,000 from IM Properties.
Labour's debts stood at £9,768,122 at the end of September compared with Tory loans totalling £4,153,939.
Labour increased its credit facilities by £2m to £6,209,000 in the third quarter. The Tories increased theirs by £10,000, taking them to £5,151,500.
The Lib Dems had outstanding loans of £337,185 and credit facilities of £1,061,000. Their biggest donor was the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, which gave £230,833.
