The Tories accepted more than twice as much as Labour in donations during the first three months of the year, new figures show.
The two main parties collected nearly £5.5 million and just over £2.6 million respectively from January 1 to March 31 2017.
Labour’s biggest cash donations unsurprisingly came from trade unions Unite, USDAW and UNISON, while the Tories took more from individuals, with one - business Michael Davis, who previously contributed £30,000 to Theresa May’s leadership campaign - handing over £317,000.
The data, published regularly by the Electoral Commission, put the Conservatives’ donations total at £5,463,173 and Labour on £2,648,315.
The Lib Dems were way behind with £603,155, the Co-operative Party accepted £322,800 and UKIP were given £246,910.
In all, there were £1.6 million more in reported donations during the first three months of 2017 than in the fourth quarter of 2016, but around £2.5 million less compared to the same quarter in 2016.
In addition to the donations, five parties accepted a total of more than £2.7 million from public funds – money and assistance given to parliamentary opposition parties to help with costs.
The value of outstanding loans to political parties as at 31 March 2017 stood at £3,099,994 - a £1,982,996 drop compared to 31 December 2016
The Commission said 17 parties failed to meet the deadline for reporting their donations - a legal requirement - and that action would now be taken in line with its enforcement policy.
Bob Posner, director of political finance and regulation and legal counsel, said: “The reporting and publication of this data ensures that our political finance system is as transparent as possible and it is therefore always disappointing when there is a failure to meet the statutory deadline. Where there is no reasonable explanation for such a failure we will take a robust approach in dealing with this.”
The list of top donors is below:
