MAY’S general election is a two-way battle between hedge-fund millionaires and millions of British workers, party donation figures published yesterday confirmed.

Half of Tory donors for the last quarter of 2014 attended exclusive soirees with Prime Minister David Cameron, the stats showed.

And hedge funds added another £2 million to their £55m vulture firm war chest.

Labour seized on the figures as evidence of a big business kickback after Chancellor George Osborne gave hedge funds a £145m windfall in 2013, with deputy election chief Jon Ashworth branding the Tories “the political wing of the hedge fund industry.”

Conservative Party donations totalled £8,345,687, while Labour raised £7,163,988 — mainly from trade unions and small donations.

Unison, Unite and the GMB all donated over £1m to Labour Party coffers, with Usdaw adding £416,872 and the CWU £167,000.

The five unions together represent almost four million workers.

Conservative donors included Trailfinders chief Michael Gooley and hedge-funder Michael Farmer, who previously bankrolled Michael Gove’s stunt gift of a King James Bible for every school.

But business barons hedged their bets, with 53 per cent of the £1.5m donated to Ukip coming from fat-cat former Tory donors.

And City accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers — recently savaged by the Commons public accounts committee for “complex strategies and contrived structures” to help business avoid tax — gave £386,605 to Labour.

On cue, Tory chair Grant Shapps launched an anti-union smear on the opposition. “Trade union bosses like Len McCluskey fund the party, pick the candidates, choose the leader and buy the policies,” he smarmed.

“Ed Miliband is utterly reliant on the trade unions to bail out his failing leadership, writing seven-figure cheques in exchange for writing the manifesto.”

But Labour shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett hit back, saying union donations were “the cleanest money in British politics.

“Equally valuable are the small donations we’ve received from ordinary people on the internet, which is a fantastic innovation for a progressive party,” he told the Star.

“It stands in complete contrast to millionaire funding of the right-wing parties.

“This election is about the contrast between the politics of the few and the politics of the many.”

The Electoral Reform Society this week controversially called for state funding of parties and a cap on all donations, including those from unions.

conradlandin@peoples-press.com