A Labour donor who has given the party more than £5million has contracts worth millions with Sadiq Khan’s City Hall, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Dale Vince’s firm Ecotricity has been paid more than £3.5million to supply power to the mayor’s Greater London Authority (GLA) since 2020.
The green industrialist has donated more than £5.5million to the Labour Party or its politicians in the same period, including to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and deputy leader Angela Rayner.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing but critics said the revelation may raise eyebrows with taxpayers.
Electoral Commission data shows the political donations have been made through Mr Vince’s Ecotricity firm, which supplies ‘certified vegan’ green energy.
Figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws show that Ecotricity has been paid £3.55million by City Hall since 2020/21.
This includes more than £1.3million in 2023/24 – during the same period that Mr Vince handed Labour millions for its general election war chest.
Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf said: ‘The fact one of Labour’s biggest donors, Dale Vince’s Ecotricity, has been handed £3.5million of taxpayer money from Sadiq Khan’s Greater London Authority in the last five years will enrage taxpayers.’
Susan Hall, the Conservative leader at the London assembly, described the revelation as ‘very interesting’ and said she was previously unaware that Mr Vince’s firm supplied power to City Hall.
A Labour donor who has given the party more than £5million has contracts worth millions with Sadiq Khan’s City Hall (Sadiq Khan pictured August 16)
Dale Vince’s firm Ecotricity has been paid more than £3.5million to supply power to the mayor’s Greater London Authority (GLA) (pictured) since 2020
She added: ‘I can only assume that the GLA has checked that this is offering us the best value for money but I’m grateful to the Daily Mail for informing me about this so that I can scrutinise it. I will certainly be asking questions about this and will be double checking that Londoners are getting value for money.’
Ecotricity said there is no link between its contract to supply power to the GLA and Mr Vince’s donations to the Labour Party, while City Hall said Sir Sadiq had no involvement in the awarding of the contract.
The firm began supplying 100 per cent of the power to the GLA after Sir Sadiq was elected in 2016.
In an answer to a past mayoral question, he stated: ‘From 1 April 2019, City Hall has switched to 100 per cent green energy with renewable electricity supplied by Ecotricity and green gas by Corona.’
At the time City Hall said the contract was due to end in March 2020 but it appears to have been renewed each year since, with the current contract due to expire in March 2026.
In addition to his donations to Labour, Mr Vince has given controversial eco campaign group Just Stop Oil £340,000 as well as funding Extinction Rebellion and vegan activist group Animal Rising, which attempted to sabotage the Grand National.
However, in 2023, Mr Vince announced he would stop funding Just Stop Oil, saying further protests from the activist group would be ‘counterproductive’. Instead he began donating large sums to Labour ahead of the last year’s general election.
Mr Vince was a prominent figure at the 2024 Labour Party conference, making a number of media and speaking appearances including at an event for Labour’s Environment Campaign.
Green industrialist Dale Vince (pictured) has donated more than £5.5million to the Labour Party or its politicians in the same period
An Ecotricity spokesman said: ‘Ecotricity has been supplying green energy to the public sector for three decades’ (File image of wind turbines)
He has also campaigned alongside Sir Sadiq on Net Zero and environmental issues, with the two men headlining sustainability festival Earthfest together last year.
When Sir Sadiq was re-elected in May last year Mr Vince posted montage footage of them together on social media alongside the message ‘London has the Mayor it deserves and wanted’.
He added: ‘Congrats to Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London) and the team – great news for London and the country.’
Last year Sir Sadiq was presented with a ‘Political Purpose Award’ for his expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone at an awards ceremony organised by campaigning group Nature 2030 and Ecotricity.
Mr Vince described the mayor as ‘inspiring’ at the ceremony, at which Environment Secretary Ed Miliband also received an award.
An Ecotricity spokesman said: ‘Ecotricity has been supplying green energy to the public sector for three decades – since we first began. It’s entirely normal.
‘Our contract with the GLA has been widely reported on over the years – and was won in a competitive process via the local authority purchasing consortium, LASER. It’s a small contract and has no connection to anything else.’
A spokesman for the Mayor of London said: ‘The mayor and his team had no involvement in or knowledge of this contract award.
‘GLA officers appointed an independent public sector energy procurement company to find the best provider for the GLA’s requirements.’
