Here is a closer look at the nearly £100,000 in donations and gifts accepted by Sheffield MPs as outlined in ‘the Westminster Accounts’.
The money funneling into the House of Commons has been laid bare this week through figures collated by Sky News and Tortoise Media, using the combined figures starting since the 2019 election.
Gathered together, it shows how Conservative MP Miriam Cates accepted £27,000 in combined funds from Tory party millionaire donors, as well as £2,000 from Robert Charles Standing of R S Furbs Ltd, an investment company with practically no online presence.
Meanwhile, three Sheffield Labour MPs accepted a combined total of £33,420 from unions nationwide.
And former Mayor of South Yorkshire Dan Jarvis received £100,000 from what has emerged to be the third biggest donor to English MPs – a “secretive” firm called MPM Connect, run by recruitment mogul millionaire Peter Hearn, who gave a combined total of £345,000 to just three Labour MPs, including the shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper.
Below, The Star has taken a closer look at the donations and gifts given to Sheffield MPs, as well as Mr Jarvis.
Meanwhile, three Sheffield Labour MPs accepted a combined total of £33,420 from unions nationwide.
5. £800: Clive Betts - Sheffield South East, Labour
Clive Betts declared a total of £800 in earnings, taken between July 2021 and February 2022. This was made up of £500 from Ipsos MORI and Savanta ComRes - both of which are research institutes known for paying MPs and the public for completing surveys. Photo: JPI Media
6. £12,740: Gill Furniss - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, Labour
Gill Furniss declared £12,470, made up of three donations and one gift. The greatest of these was a £7,600 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Qatar in October 2021, reportedly for a trip to the country.
Since October 2021, Qatar has spent more than £260,000 in gifts, hospitality and travel for MPs. Ms Furniss told the Daily Express in December she travelled to Qatar in order to have "full and frank discussions with political leaders on their human rights record” and was “disappointed by the lack of progress.” Although not part of this intake of donations since 2019, in 2018, Ms Furniss also flew to Qatar - at a cost of £4,600 paid for by their hosts - for similar reasons.
The remaining £7,870 outlined by Sky News and Tortoise Media was made of donations from unions - £3,140 from the Communications Workers Union and £2,000 from Unite. These two unions donated a combined £10.7m to the Labour Party in the period outlined. Photo: JPI Media
7. £15,020: Louise Haigh - Sheffield Heeley, Labour
Louise Haigh declared £15,020 from three gifts and four donations. The four donations were from made of £7,500 total from Unite and £5,500 from the GMB Union, two of Labour's biggest donators. Another £2,280 was gifted by the Trade Union Congress, £300 from the Performing Rights Society, and a £300 gift from Betfred. Photo: Send In
8. £36,790: Olivia Blake - Sheffield Hallam, Labour
Olivia Blake declared £36,790, made up of three gifts and six donations. The greatest was three donations totaling £20,880 from the Refugee, Asylum and Migration Policy Project (RAMP), a group seeking to create a "world-class migration system" in the UK and which has an All-Party Parliamentary Group, of which Ms Blake is an officer.
Donations from unions included £2,000 from the Fire Brigades Union, £9,000 from GMB and £3,000 from Unite.
In June 2022, a gift of £1,450 was made by Medical Aid for Palestians in the form of a trip by Ms Blake to West Bank and East Jerusalem. There was also a £400 gift by 'Sustain: The Alliance for Better Food and Farming', reportedly in the form of a paid trip to Latitude Festival 2021, where Ms Blake made a speech. Image by Scott Merrylees Photo: Scott Merrylees
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