Electoral Commission publishes income and expenditure figures for Sinn Fein, DUP, Alliance, UUP and SDLP for 2022

The figures also revealed that the Alliance Party brought in and spent significantly more than the largest unionist party, the DUP, for the year ending 31 December 2022.

The five political parties with income or expenditure over £250,000 were:

:: Alliance income was £522k and expenditure was £545k

:: DUP income was £426k and expenditure was £488k

:: SDLP income was £424k and expenditure was £396k

:: Sinn Féin income was £1.2m and expenditure was £1.5m

:: UUP income was £234k and expenditure was £400k

Cahir Hughes, Head of Electoral Commission Northern Ireland, said: “We are committed to making sure political funding is transparent. Larger parties spend and receive considerable sums of money so it’s important that information on their finances is accessible to the public. Publishing their accounts allows voters to see how parties are funded and choose to spend their money.”

In total the parties reported £2.8m of income and £3.4m of expenditure. This compares with five parties reporting £2.8m of income and £2.5m of expenditure in 2021.

The UUP was granted an extension, and submitted their accounts by the deadline of 22 August.

The full financial accounts of all political parties are available on the commission’s website.