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More than 100 Labour MPs have registered donations from the think tank linked to Sir Keir Starmer’s new chief of staff and backed by a hedge fund manager.
The donations from Labour Together, totalling about £1.5m and ranging from £5,000 to £137,168, have raised questions over the influence of the think tank and the power of its former director Morgan McSweeney.
The figures come just days after Mr McSweeney, Labour Together’s former director, won the power struggle with Sue Gray in Downing Street to replace her as the prime minister’s chief of staff.
Labour Together has been subject to attacks from allies of former leader Jeremy Corbyn, who see it as Mr McSweeney’s “right-wing” vehicle to replace Mr Corbyn’s Momentum allies in running the party. It is backed by wealthy donors, and there have been claims that it is part of an effort to create an alternative means of funding the party in place of its traditional trade union backers.
In total, Labour Together backed 123 parliamentary candidates in this year’s election, with 111 of them returned as MPs.
The biggest recipient of support was justice secretary Shabana Mahmood, who received donations of staff support valued at £137,168 while she was in the shadow cabinet.
Meanwhile, chancellor Rachel Reeves, who earlier this year was embarrassed by claims of plagiarism, including copying and pasting a Wikipedia entry in her new book, was given £64,967.15 in “research and writing services” from Labour Together.
Similar staffing support was provided by Labour Together to other members of the shadow cabinet, including home secretary Yvette Cooper (£81,592.24); transport secretary Louise Haigh (£50,308.33); defence secretary John Healey (£52,940.30); chief Treasury secretary Darren Jones (£57,441.58); foreign secretary David Lammy (£67,673.55); Scottish secretary Ian Murray (10,070.37); and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner (£31,800).
Scores of MPs also received grants of £5,000 or £10,000 during the election to help them win target seats.
Labour Together receives most of its support from hedge fund manager Martin Taylor, who has ploughed almost £3m into the think tank since 2017 along with millions directly to Labour, as well as making direct donations to senior figures such as Sir Keir and Ms Rayner.
Questions have previously been asked over Mr Taylor’s influence on Labour policy, with his hedge fund Nevsky Capital linked to private health providers with $15m of shares in private health giant UnitedHealth.
Almost another £400,000 has come from businessman and philanthropist Trevor Chinn, a director of Labour Together, who has been attacked by the left for also backing pro-Israel causes.
Labour peer David Sainsbury has given the think tank £175,000, while his daughter Francesca Sainsbury Perrin, who is also on Labour Together’s board, has given it £260,000.
While funds were generally directed to target seats, left-wing MPs have noted that none of them received the support cash.
Added to that, there are concerns that Mr McSweeney, in his role as election coordinator, oversaw the selection of hundreds of candidates, ditching ones he didn’t want, such as Faiza Shaheen in Chingford and Woodford Green.
On top of that, Ms Perrin made donations worth £116,000 split between 11 different MPs.
Corbyn ally and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who has been suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party, said: “Labour Together is a right-wing faction that, with massive funding from rich private donors, has effectively taken control of the Labour Party. Without a historical base in the Labour Party, Keir Starmer allied himself with this faction to secure his position.
“They now totally dominate his office in both the party and No 10. Labour has always been a broad church, but Labour Together has made it its mission to destroy the left and centre left in the party. They are so dominant I have warned Keir not to stumble, as these are the people who will take him out.”
However, Jonathan Ashworth, who became chief executive of Labour Together after losing his Leicester East seat in July, hit back at the comments and compared them to those made by Mr Corbyn’s Momentum supporters.
He said: “Labour Together is an entirely different entity to Momentum or John’s old Labour Representation Committee. Indeed, these are very different days to when John was running the Labour Party. Labour Together is purely focused on helping Labour win re-election. We’re not focused on who wins election to the Labour Party NEC’s organisation sub-committee.”
Mr Ashworth has made three visits to Downing Street since taking his new role, including two meetings at No 10 and one at the chancellor’s residence No 11.
In addition, Mr Ashworth and others from Labour Together have had a number of meetings with ministers in the first 100 days.
On the topic of donations to candidates, a Labour Together spokesperson added: “Labour Together is proud to have supported Labour candidates during the election campaign. Labour Together retains full control over how money received from donations is used. All donations made to Labour Together that support political work are registered [with] the Electoral Commission.”
The think tank has previously been the subject of controversy. In 2021, Labour Together was fined £14,250 by the Electoral Commission for failing to declare within the 30-day limit £730,000 of donations raised between 2017 and 2020, when Mr McSweeney ran the think tank.
