Who's Been Fined, and Why
The Electoral Commission is the independent regulator for UK political party finance. It publishes concluded enforcement cases on the third Tuesday of every month. This page tracks real, documented sanctions — not allegations — against parties across the spectrum.
Fined cases
Conservative Party
£17,800 · December 2021Fined over the 11 Downing Street flat refurbishment. Conservative donor Lord Brownlow transferred £67,801.72 to the party in October 2020 via his company Huntswood Associates Ltd — £52,801.72 of which covered refurbishment costs at the Prime Minister's flat. The party reported only £15,000 of it. The Commission fined £16,250 for failing to report the full donation and £1,550 for inaccurate accounting records, finding "serious failings in the party's compliance systems."
Conservative Party
£10,750 · March 2025Fined for under-reporting non-cash donations from long-time donor Richard Harpin (founder of HomeServe and Checkatrade) between 2020 and 2023. A staff member seconded to the party by Harpin moved from part-time to full-time work, and the change wasn't properly reflected — under-reporting the donation's true value by more than £200,000. The party said it self-reported the error to the Commission.
Labour Party
£12,500 · 2018Fined over failures to deliver an accurate quarterly donations report and accurate weekly pre-poll reports covering April–June 2017, ahead of that year's snap general election. At the time, the Commission described it as "the highest fine we have issued" for that type of offence.
Scottish Unionist Association Trust
Fined (amount not disclosed in reporting) · 2019A donor group that gave the Conservative Party roughly £318,876 over 17 years. The party itself properly reported these donations — but the Trust, as an unincorporated association, repeatedly failed to register or properly notify the Commission of its own activities, including donations of £50,000 and £157,000 it separately received.
Progress & Movement for Change (Labour-affiliated groups)
£6,000 and £5,500 · 2015Two Labour-aligned campaign groups were fined after accepting donations from Lord Sainsbury at a time when he wasn't on the UK electoral register, a basic permissibility check both groups failed to carry out.
A cross-party investigation
A 2024 investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism tested party donation-screening systems by sending small donations that should have failed basic permissibility checks (only donors on the UK electoral roll can legally give). The Conservatives, Reform UK, Liberal Democrats, Green Party, and SNP all failed to identify or return the payments. Labour was the only party that correctly blocked the money. Experts described the findings as exposing "deeply concerning" gaps in how parties check where their funding actually comes from.
Reform on the way
The government's Representation of the People Bill would significantly expand the Electoral Commission's enforcement powers, raising its maximum fine from the low thousands seen in the cases above to as much as £500,000 per offence. The Commission has said the changes have the potential to meaningfully strengthen donation controls. In its 2024/25 annual report, the Commission concluded 14 investigations over the year, down from 17 the year before.