The Labour leader is said to be in “tentative discussions” with Fran Perrin – the daughter of Lord Sainsbury – in the hope of turning round his party’s finances before the next election. Lord Sainsbury, a member of the supermarket chain dynasty, donated £10.6 million to Labour over a decade before cutting ties under Jeremy Corbyn. Four sources have confirmed that Ms Perrin, who donated £250,000 to the party last year, is among a handful of high-value donors being wooed.
Labour’s new fundraising drive comes after its ruling national executive committee (NEC) was given a “bleak” financial briefing in July last year, which revealed the party had ended 2020 with an unplanned deficit for the first time since 2006.
While the party is expected to move out of deficit this year, NEC members were told that party finances were in a parlous state due to £2 million-a-year legal bills arising from antisemitism lawsuits, disciplinary cases and data protection breaches throughout Mr Corbyn’s tenure.
Party membership has also plunged by more than 100,000 to just over 400,000 since Sir Keir Starmer took office.
Insiders said that significant new sources of funding from wealthy individuals had yet to be finalised.
“The Corbynites literally reduced our high-value individual donors to zero,” said one party source. “
“It’s quite hard to get people, who have the amounts of money that might be useful to a political party, to donate when you say you want to abolish capitalism.”
The party is making up ground by hosting larger fundraising dinners.
Sir Keir hosted a gala dinner last Thursday with Gary Neville, the former Manchester United star, who has recently joined the party.
A senior Labour source said: “To have people like Gary wanting to be publicly associated with the party is such a good thing for brand Labour.”
