The Greens brought in more money than UKIP in the last quarter of 2016, new figures from the Electoral Commission reveal.

The Green Party of England and Wales brought in £46,228 compared to UKIP’s £33,228, between 1st October and 31st December 2016.

When you include the Scottish Greens, the Green parties of Great Britain got £72,260 – more than double UKIP’s income for the last quarter*.

GPEW also got £53,025 in ‘Short money’ – public funds to parties – in that time.

Emma Carter, Green Party (E&W) Finance Coordinator, told Bright Green: “For me the key take away is that we are building a grass roots and coherent political movement which is attracting donors. Some who have supported us for a long time, others that have donated for the first time.

“We don’t accept donations from unethical sources, but the fact that we out-raised UKIP shows that people support what they believe in for a better society, not one based on fear.”

It’s the second quarter in a row that the Greens have out-raised Paul Nuttall’s party, with the former bringing in 11 high value donations totalling £65,987 in Quarter 3 of 2016, compared to £44,743 for UKIP.

However, UKIP’s funding appears to have been ‘front-loaded’ to the first half of 2016 due to the EU referendum campaign, with the party receiving £1.3m in Q2 and £221,000 in Q1.

Our analysis shows that the majority of the large donations in to the Greens (both E&W and Scotland) in the last quarter of 2016 come from elected officials – with Caroline Russell AM and Jean Lambert MEP both making significant regular donations, while Alison Johnstone MSP and Patrick Harvey MSP also donating thousands to the Scottish party.

PEW Consultancy Ltd is an environmental consultancy run by Paul Woodhead, a Green councillor in Cannock Chase.

Consultant and writer Roger Manser tops the list for Quarter 4 donations, while Lord Oakeshott, a former Lib Dem, topped the overall 2016 donor list, giving £25,000 in January. Lord Oakeshott pledged £10,000 towards Caroline Lucas MP’s re-election campaign in 2015, as well as giving money to the Labour Party in an apparent bid to bolster the ‘anti-Tory’ vote.

The Electoral Commission statistics also show that Labour have been beaten by the Lib Dems in fundraising for the first time ever, while the Huffington Post reports that the Conservatives got 100 times more in donations than UKIP.

A Green Party spokesperson said the party do not comment on party donations.

*Donation figures for the Northern Ireland Greens are published by the Electoral Commission as NI party donations are secret, as Bright Green’s own Adam Ramsay is currently investigating.