DONATIONS to the Labour Party hit an annual record high last year and outstripped the Tories by almost £10 million, the Electoral Commission said yesterday.

Figures released by the commission show Labour received £51,153,000 in 2015 whereas the Tories’ income totalled £41,887,000.

The increase represented a huge jump from its 2014 income of £39.6m.

The increase has come from all sources of Labour Party income — members, registered supporters, affiliated trade unions and large donors.

Labour spent around £46,789,000 last year, mainly on fighting the general election.

The data follows figures released in February which showed the extent to which the Conservatives rely on wealthy individual patrons compared to other parties.

The Tories raised £5.2m of their total income from private donors in the October-December quarter alone, £2.2m of which came from just 49 wealthy backers.

In the same period Labour raised £2.7m, of which £2.1m came from trade unions.

Currently Labour owns assets worth £20.5m and has liabilities of just below £14.5m.

The Tories on the other hand have assets totalling £7.4m which are outweighed by liabilities of almost £12m.

Over the last decade Labour has been dogged by concerns over debt linked to electoral spending, particularly in 2005, but paid off all remaining arrears in September last year.

In the Tony Blair years Labour lost some trade union backers as the party lurched to the right and failed to reverse anti-union legislation introduced by the Tories.