Labour receives biggest-ever female donation as Lord Sainsbury’s daughter gives £1m
Labour has received its biggest-ever donation from a female supporter with £1 million pledged by a daughter of Lord Sainsbury, The Telegraph can reveal.
Fran Perrin said she had decided to make the donation because she thought Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves were “the best chance this country has of renewing our standing in the world”.
Ms Perrin is one of the three daughters of David Sainsbury, the scion of the supermarket dynasty who was made a Labour peer in 1997.
Her £1 million donation is the single largest from a female donor in the party’s history and brings her total financial support to Labour since 2021 to £2 million.
Ms Perrin is the founder and director of the Indigo Trust, a grant-making foundation which funds projects in the UK and Africa. She previously acted as an advisor in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Explaining her donation, she said: “This country needs serious leadership. I want a government working in the national interest, not self-interest. I’ve never been more certain that the Labour Party is the best choice for our future.
“I believe Keir and Rachel are the best chance this country has of renewing our standing in the world.
“Every cause that I care about needs Labour in power if anything is going to improve. Giving to Labour is the best way I can help to bring about that change.
She added: “There is so much damage to be undone after 13 years of bad decisions and reckless choices.
“Britain deserves better than the Tories’ self-interest, self-obsession and playing games with people’s lives.”
Ms Perrin’s support for Labour puts her on a par with Lubov Chernukhin, the businesswoman and wife of a former Russian finance minister who has given more than £2 million to the Conservatives.
Ms Perrin’s father is believed to have made the biggest personal donation to Labour in September when he gifted the party £3 million.
Lord Sainsbury also once held the record for the biggest political donation in history when he gave £8 million to the Liberal Democrats for the 2019 general election.
His cousin John Sainsbury, Conservative peer Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover, bequeathed £10 million to the Tories in his will when he died in January 2022.
Labour hailed the news of Ms Perrin’s donation as further evidence of financial backers returning to the party as it rides high in the polls.
A party spokesman said: “Thanks to Keir Starmer’s leadership, the Labour Party is seeing significant financial growth throughout 2023.
“Donors are coming back to Labour because they can see we are a changed party that is serious about delivering for working people with five missions to transform Britain.
“The Labour Party is a changed party that will work hard to get Britain’s future back.”
