Owen Jones launched a crowdfunding campaign during the general election called the ‘Stop a Tory Landslide Fund’. The Crowdpac page used to solicit donations records that a healthy £28,258 was raised. The clear impression from that page and the accompanying video is that the cash was to be urgently put towards the campaign: “We will donate this money to Labour MPs who are under threat from the Tories to help them keep their seats… time is running out.” An impressive crowdfunding effort…

So imagine Guido’s surprise to see that Labour MPs received only £15,000 from Owen’s Stop a Tory Landslide Fund during the second quarter of the year. The official data, released by the Electoral Commission this morning, records only three donations from Stop a Tory Landslide. These were to Lancaster and Fleetwood, Nottingham South, and Ealing Central and Acton CLPs, who each received £5,000. What happened to the remaining £13,258?

Political donations are so closely monitored that there must be an innocent explanation for this. Maybe the missing money is yet to be donated, being held back for the next election. After all, Labour is in ‘permanent campaign’ mode – although donors were not told that by Owen at the time. Or maybe the crowdfunding page is overstating the actual amount raised. Perhaps Owen can help clear it up…

UPDATE: Guido is happy to report that Owen says “The rest was donated to the campaigns, not CLPs, of Clive Lewis and Rosena Allin-Khan, who’ve declared on Register of Members’ Interests.”