HUMZA Yousaf has said he is confident of the SNP’s General Election hopes despite a drop in donations to the party.
It emerged on Thursday morning that the SNP received just £4000 in donations in the first three months of 2023, according to figures revealed by the Electoral Commission (EC).
The Tories raked in £12.1 million, including a one-off £5m donation from an Egyptian billionaire with links to a dictator, while Labour were handed £4.4m over three months.
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The SNP’s single donation came from James Murdoch, the Electoral Commission database showed.
Speaking after FMQs, the First Minister was asked if he was worried that the party would not have enough money to fight the next General Election.
“We’ve got 75,000 members or thereabouts,” the FM told journalists.
“We’d be happy to of course be the largest mass membership organisation of any political party in Scotland.
“On top of that what I’d say is we rely on our huge membership base as opposed to big massive donors.
“I’m very confident of not just fighting that General Election but doing very well in that General Election.”
The party’s Westminster group did also take three payments of £95,779 from the House of Commons to fund their activities.
Former Glasgow SNP councillor Mhairi Hunter said on social media: “The SNP gets most of its donations from people like me who have a direct debit for a tenner a month or so.
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“That never hits the threshold where it needs to be declared and published but it keeps the party ticking over.”
Elsewhere, the Scottish Greens did not take any donations that had to be declared in the first three months of the year.
Nor did the Ulster Unionist Party, DUP, or Plaid Cymru.
The LibDems were given £1.3 million in donations over the period.
Overall, political parties registered in the UK reported accepting £20,887,106 in donations and public funds during the first quarter of 2023, according to the EC.
This compares to £12,792,415 accepted in the same period in 2022.
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We previously told how the SNP had registered over £1 million in donations since 2019.
The Tories brought in by far the most cash (£76m), followed by Labour (£33m), an interactive database revealed.
Despite only having 14 MPs, the LibDems brought in £15m, compared to the SNP who have 45 MPs and received £1m.
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