Final figures for donations received by political parties during the election campaign have revealed the Tories frittered away huge cash gifts from wealthy backers.
The Electoral Commission published figures every week on how much each of the main parties had received in donations - as any over £7,500 must be declared to the watchdog.
The Tories’ coffers consistently dwarfed Labour’s, with the party regularly pulling in well over a million in a seven day period, and receiving huge sums from wealthy individuals including hedge fund managers and City bankers.
But a breakdown of the figures and the number of seats won showed every vote for the Conservatives cost their backers 93p - compared to just 35p for Labour.
The Tories also lost their deposit in seven seats, while no Labour candidates performed badly enough to cost the party cash.
In total, between 3 May 3 and 8 June, Theresa May’s party received £12.7m compared to Labour’s £4.5m.
The Lib Dems raised £1.1m, UKIP £99,300, the SNP £63,000 and the Women’s Equality Party £152,960. Combined donations of more than £7,500 to all parties totalled £18.7m.
On average, Conservative donors racked up £19,000 an hour for Theresa May’s campaign. Labour’s biggest financial backers throughout the six-week period were unions Unite, UNISON and GMB, but the party took in hundreds of thousands of small donations.
Jeremy Corbyn said the number of individuals lending their support to Labour through modest sums showed the strength of his campaign’s grassroots support, with three million raised through an average of £22 per donor.