Elections and party donations: your questions answered
Party donations, campaign spending, election results and the Electoral Commission.
How do I find political party donations?
The Electoral Commission's political finance search lists donations and loans reported by parties, MPs, other elected representatives and campaigners, with the donor's name, amount and date. It is free, searchable and downloadable.
Parties report each quarter (weekly during a general election campaign), and the Commission publishes the reports. MPs' own donations also appear in the Register of Members' Financial Interests.
Related: How much can a political party accept in donations? · How much did parties spend at the general election?
Where can I find official UK election results?
Results are declared by local returning officers. The Electoral Commission publishes results and turnout for UK general elections, referendums and other polls, and the House of Commons Library publishes full constituency results going back decades.
For local elections, results are on each council's website.
How much did parties spend at the general election?
The Electoral Commission publishes each party's and campaigner's spending return after a UK general election, with totals and itemised invoices over £200. Candidates' local spending returns are held by local returning officers, and the Commission publishes a summary.
Spending limits apply during the regulated period before an election and are set out in the Commission's guidance.
How many people are registered to vote in the UK?
The ONS publishes electoral registration statistics for the UK, giving the number of people on the electoral registers by area. Its latest release, in April 2026, covers parliamentary electors at December 2025; the ONS left out local government electors that year because of data quality problems.
The Electoral Commission publishes research on how complete and accurate the registers are, which estimates how many eligible people are missing.
How much can a political party accept in donations?
There is no limit on the size of a donation to a UK political party, but donations over £500 must come from a permissible source, such as a person on a UK electoral register or a company registered and trading in the UK.
Since 1 January 2024 a party's central organisation must report donations from one source totalling more than £11,180 in a calendar year, and its local accounting units more than £2,230; further donations from a source already reported must be reported above £2,230. Before 2024 the figures were £7,500 and £1,500. The change was made by SI 2023/1235.
Source guides for this topic
- Scottish official statistics: Scottish Government, National Records of Scotland, Public Health Scotland and others
- Welsh official statistics: Welsh Government, StatsWales, Welsh Revenue Authority and Senedd Research
- The Electoral Commission
- UK Parliament records: Hansard, votes, questions, interests and bills
- UK Statistics Authority and Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR)
These answers say where official figures are published and how they are defined. They give no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request.