This election is being bought by "Russian Gold"

What kind of  democracy do we live in where people with money can affect the result of a General Election by donating  large sums to just one party?

The Tories banked large donations worth 26 times those received by Labour in the first week of the election campaign, new figures revealed today.

The Daily Mail reports that

Boris Johnson's party received £5.7million in just seven days, compared with £218,500 given to Jeremy Corbyn's outfit, the Electoral Commission said.
But the cash handed to the Conservative may raise some eyebrows as it includes £200,000 from Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of a Russian oligarch with links to Vladimir Putin.
Banker Mrs Chernukhin enjoyed a night out with Theresa May and six female Cabinet members in April after donating £135,000 at a Tory fundraiser.

It took her total contribution to Conservative coffers to more than £1million before her latest payment.
Mr Johnson's ability to pull in such large donations underlines his popularity and boosts his party, which is already ahead in the polls.
But it could also help Labour renew its charge that the Conservatives are the party of billionaires, bankers and big business. 

 I am not sure if it has anything to do with Boris Johnson's popularity, these donors will sesek to do so whoever the Tory leaders is 

The party has insisted that Mrs Chernukhin, now a British citizen, is not a ‘Putin crony’. But the money will raise fresh questions about the Tories’ links to Russia just a year after the Salisbury spy poisoning.
Five years ago, David Cameron faced questions after Mrs Chernukhin successfully bid £160,000 at a party fundraising dinner to play tennis against him and Boris Johnson.
Labour even trailed two of the smaller parties in the fundraising stakes, although it tends to raise more money from smaller donations that fall below the Electoral Commission's £7,500 notification threshold.
Last week it claimed that it had taken more than a million pounds from such gifts.
 'While the Conservative Party is in the pockets of vested interests and the super-rich, we are proud that the Labour Party is funded by hundreds of thousands of people donating what they can afford to build a fairer society,' Labour Chairman Ian Lavery said in response to the figures.
The biggest Conservative backer was John Gore, a developer, producer and distributor of Broadway theatre, who gave 1 million pounds.
The next three largest were the travel company Trailfinders, Countrywide Developers and WA Capital, who each gave 500,000 pounds to the party.
The party also received 200,000 pounds from Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of a former Russian minister, the Electoral Commission said.
Stockbrokers Shore Capital donated 250,000 pounds and hedge fund manager Andrew Law gave 200,000 pounds.

 The influence of Money can be seen in examining the results of Canadian Elextions  who have a similar electoral system to the UK .

However Wikipedia  when displaying the results from Canadian Ridings (Constituencies) include what each party spent


Here are some examples

York Centre 2015 Canadian federal election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Michael Levitt	20,131	46.88	+13.64	$108,171.17
	Conservative	Mark Adler	18,893	43.99	−4.54	$139,711.85
	New Democratic	Hal Berman	3,148	7.33	−8.56	$9,236.24
	Green	Constantine Kritsonis	772	1.80	−0.54	$2,969.38
Total valid votes/Expense limit			42,944	100.00		$198,977.91
Total rejected ballots			319	0.74	–
Turnout			43,263	67.29	–
Eligible voters			64,297
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing		+9.

Hochelaga (electoral district) 2015 Canadian federal election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet	16,034	30.89	-16.59	$64,664.42
	Liberal	Marwah Rizqy	15,534	29.93	+18.20	$19,746.32
	Bloc Québécois	Simon Marchand	14,389	27.72	-3.04	$47,613.01
	Conservative	Alexandre Dang	3,555	6.85	-0.35	$3,363.29
	Green	Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny	1,654	3.19	+1.52	–
	Rhinoceros	Nicolas Lemay	411	0.79	+0.26	$651.34
	Communist	Marianne Breton Fontaine	179	0.34	-0.05	–
	Marxist–Leninist	Christine Dandenault	148	0.29	-0.02	–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			51,904	100.0		$219,682.85
Total rejected ballots			877	–	–
Turnout			52,781	–	–
Eligible voters			82,783
These results were subject to a judicial recount,[6] and modified from the validated results in accordance with the Judge's rulings. The margin of Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet over Marwah Rizqy decreased from 541 votes to 500 votes as a result of the recount.[7]
Source: Elections Canada[8][9]

Parkdale—High Park 2015 Canadian federal election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Arif Virani	24,623	42.04	+9.15	$118,148.12
	New Democratic	Peggy Nash	23,566	40.24	-6.96	$143,864.29
	Conservative	Ian Allen	7,641	13.05	-2.50	$16,096.82
	Green	Adam Phipps	1,743	2.98	-0.29	$4,405.49
	Libertarian	Mark Jeftovic	610	1.04	–	–
	Marijuana	Terry Parker	191	0.33	-0.09	–
	Marxist–Leninist	Lorne Gershuny	100	0.17	±0	–
	Independent	Carol Royer	93	0.16	–	$4,449.41
Total valid votes/Expense limit			58,567	100.0		$211,869.52
Total rejected ballots			269	–	–
Turnout			58,836	–	–
Eligible voters			76,95

Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River 2015 Canadian federal election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Georgina Jolibois	10,319	34.15	-11.23	$26,597.41
	Liberal	Lawrence Joseph	10,237	33.88	+28.62	$50,341.46
	Conservative	Rob Clarke	9,105	30.14	-16.75	$83,236.17
	Green	Warren Koch	552	1.83	-0.64	$1,984.03
Total valid votes/Expense limit			30,213	99.70		$228,699.20
Total rejected ballots			91	0.30	–
Turnout			30,304	68.38	–
Eligible voters			44,320
	New Democratic gain from Conservative		Swing		+2.76
These results were subject to a judicial recount and modified from the validated results in accordance with the Judge's ruling

OK the winning party is not always the one that spends most and it would take a fair bit of examination over a number of elections to establish any correlation.

If you are a Politics student looking for a dissertation topic it would be worth while considering.

What would be the result if the above expenditure method appeared on the UK results.

However we also need to link the Parties expeditionary outside that counted in a individual consistencies.

For years elections have been bought and now it seems by Russian Gold.

That term was often used to attack the Left in the UK in the Soviet era.

It is ironic that "Russian Gold" is now buying the election for a Right Wing Brexit.

One wonders why there are not cries of Treason from our media , but of course  it suits thymine

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