- 02/06/2026
- Posted by: Valerie Vaz MP
- Category: News
I was pleased to speak to and hear from the authors of the Report, “Givers and Takers” about transparency in the use of public money.
Key findings:
• The UK’s donations-contracts nexus involves huge amounts of money being donated by private companies to political parties, who then award them government contracts at a future date.
• We identify 373 companies that have been both Givers (have made donations that were declared to the Electoral Commission) and Takers (have received a contract from a public sector contracting authority). We call these ‘giver and taker’ companies.
• Over the last 25 years, ~£47 million has been donated by ‘giver and taker’ companies in total who have also received public contracts.
• Since 2015, the total value of contracts awarded to these same companies totals ~£60 billion.
• The amount companies donate is dwarfed by the financial worth of the public contracts they receive.
• In effect, for every £1 donated by a ‘giver and taker’ company since 2000, over £1,294 of public funds have been given out in the form of contracts to this same set of companies since in the last decade alone
• Just under 10% of ‘giver and taker’ companies (35 out of 373) were awarded a large UK government contract within two years of donating to a major political party which then assumed power.
• 8 corporations which donated over £580,000 to the Labour Party and were awarded contracts totalling over £138 million within the first year of the current Labour government (July 2024-June 2025).
• Two companies, Microsoft and PwC, had such a relationship with both major governing parties.
• All political donations above £500 should be logged through real-time disclosures, with full details available for public scrutiny.
• Company numbers of donor entities must be published alongside other donation details.
• Reinstate reporting requirements for defence and spending contracts.
