THE SNP have repaid £1 million in loans from one of Scotland’s richest couples borrowed to get through the last Holyrood election.
The party returned the money to EuroMillions lottery winners Chris and Colin Weir in December, new figures from the Electoral Commission have revealed.
The pair, who won £161m in 2011, had each loaned the party £500,000 in March 2016.
In 2015, the SNP repaid a similar £1m loan for the general election in just five months.
However last year's snap election would have added to the financial strain on the SNP, which has seen a marked decline in large donations in recent years, bar bequests.
The latest quarterly donations figures show UK Labour accepted donations of almost £4.2m between October and December, compared to £3m for the UK Conservatives.
However the Tory money was almost entirely from individual donors and donors, whereas more than half of Labour’s income was from public funds given to the official opposition.
The UK Liberal Democrats banked £773,670 in total, and the SNP £415,719.
Just over half the SNP’s money came from a single bequest, with £192,746 from public funds.
The figures also show Scottish Green MSPs gave their party almost £50,000 between them in the last quarter - the party’s sole source of significant donations.
Members of the six-strong group gave between £7757 and £9036 each, a total of £48,597.
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