Andy Burnham received £345,000 in donations in the past 12 months, with Lord Sainsbury and Lord Blunkett among those who gave money to the Prime Minister. Mr Burnham also accepted two tickets worth £3,800 from Sony Music to attend the Brit Awards, two tickets worth £500 to Aintree racecourse and four tickets to last year's Glastonbury festival, during his former role as the mayor of Greater Manchester.
First declaration since election
The donations, listed in the most recent version of the MPs' register of interests, are the first declared by the PM since he was elected in June. It is standard practice for new MPs to register all their current financial interest and any registerable benefits they received in the year before their election.
Key donors and amounts
Lord Sainsbury, a prominent Labour donor, handed £164,347 including in the form of 'office space' and the cost of contractors working on 'policy and operations' for Mr Burnham from June. Lord Blunkett donated £2,000 during the Makerfield by-election campaign.
The filings also show that Mr Burnham received £25,000 from businessman Gary Lubner towards his Labour leadership bid, £50,000 from a company run by TV producer Charlie Parsons, and that ThinkLabour, the think-tank formerly known as Labour Together, gave over £22,000 in staffing and IT equipment for the Prime Minister's office in June. Ernst And Young provided a secondment to his team worth £16,500 in July.
Earlier donations and response
Before the £325,000 of donations made during the Makerfield contest and Labour leadership bid, Mr Burnham received four £5,000 donations from the Fire Brigades Union, its North-west regional office, the Communication Workers Union and Unison, for 'mayoral' campaigning, reports the Daily Mail.
A Labour Party spokesman said: 'All declarations have been made in line with parliamentary and Electoral Commission rules.'
