Miliband Funding: Rich donors and Sun slurs

David Miliband is still way ahead in campaign funding, almost all of it coming from rich Blairites, according to the latest information published yesterday by the Electoral Commission . In line with its history of support for things Blairite,  The Sun chose yesterday to present the “facts” rather differently. It falsely alleged that trade unions have spent “half a mil” in order to “buy the Labour crown for their pet candidate “Red” Ed Miliband“.

In fact, David Miliband has now received  £430,132 in large donations from companies and wealthy individuals plus £25,000 from USDAW. Ed Miliband has received £80,951 from companies and wealthy individuals plus £133,000 from Unite, GMB and UCATT. Unions which have nominated Ed Miliband, like USDAW and Community which nomminated David Miliband, have spent some money on letters and other communications to their members in support of the candidates they’ve decided to nominate. This expenditure is not regulated but is certainly nothing like as much as the Sun alleges:

The powerful GMB and Unite unions sent letters urging members to vote for the left-winger. In return, they want Ed to boost their power if he ever gets to No10. The campaign includes £120,000 spent by the GMB posting ballot papers to 610,000 members in an envelope with the message “Vote Ed Miliband”. And Unite spent £200,000 on pro-Ed letters to 1.1million members. It also spent £20,000 on texts.

The truth is that Unite sent an A5 leaflet to its members with a message from the General Secretaries that was enclosed in a cellophane package with the ballot communication envelope from the Labour Party. For London members, this was combined with a message about the London Mayoralty. The GMB acted similarly. That is unlikely to have cost more than 2p per member, far less than the 18-20p estimated by the Sun.

Could this be yet another indication that the Blairites are rattled?