THERESA May’s Conservatives received almost £5 million in the first three months of this year – ahead of the local elections in England – which was more than three times as much as Labour.

By contrast, the SNP in this period received no registered donations. There are no scheduled elections in Scotland this year.

New data showed the Tories received the vast majority of registered donations reported by all UK political parties between January 1 and March 31, 220 out of 356.

While the Conservatives received £4,724,776 in Q1, Labour was given £1,494,267 and the Liberal Democrats £564,135.

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The figures released do not include all donations accepted by political parties.

Under the 2000 Political Parties, Elections and Referendum Act 2000 parties are required only to report donations over £7,500 to the central party or over £1,500 to so-called accounting units. The SNP often maintains it receives most of its donations from people giving small amounts.

The Commission data also detailed the total of public funds accepted by parties, including so-called "Short money," which was introduced in 1975 to support opposition parties and is based on the number of votes and MPs they have.

Labour's Short money total in this three-month period was £1.25m while the Lib Dems - who have just 12 MPs compared to Labour's 257 - received £153,666. The SNP got £192,746.

Renew, the newly-established centrist party aiming to stop Brexit, collected £111,671 in Q1 while the Women's Equality Party received £10,000 and the Green Party £1,800.

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The Electoral Commission said the total reported to it by all parties amounted to £6.9m.

The elections watchdog pointed out that the three-month total for 2018 was £2.4m lower than donations accepted in the same period in 2017.

The Tories' biggest donor was a £582,358 bequest from Gerda Winder, followed by £500,000 from businessman Ehud Sheleg.

Unite the Union was Labour's biggest donor with £450,027, followed by the GMB giving £318,673.

Separate figures published for Northern Ireland showed the Democratic Unionist Party, Mrs May's minority Government allies, received £4,000 in donations in the first quarter of 2018, while the Ulster Unionist Party received £2,000.

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Sinn Fein and the United Kingdom Veterans' and People's Party failed to meet the deadline for reporting donations, according to the watchdog.

Ann Watt, head of the Commission in Northern Ireland, said it was "disappointing" the two parties had failed to deliver their returns on time.

She added: "Where there is no reasonable explanation for such a failure, we will take a robust approach in line with our enforcement policy."