Ed Balls received a donation of £100,000 in July for his campaign to be the next leader of the Labour Party from the author Ken Follett, figures from the Electoral Commission show.

Despite the donation Mr Balls was still trailing behind David Miliband when it came to donations in January. In total Mr Miliband received £138,835 in donations last month, while Mr Balls received £103,000.

Ed Miliband came in at third with £46,450, while Andy Burnham received £12,400, of which £10,000 came from footballer Jamie Carragher.

Diane Abbott was not recorded as receiving any substantial donations.

Although David Miliband received the most donations in July, his funding advantage appears to be narrowing. In June David Miliband was shown to have received four times as much in donations as both Ed Balls and Ed Miliband put together, while now their combined funding outmatches him.

David Miliband's campaign has also received substantial contributions from Labour fundraiser Anthony Bailey, who donated £50,000 and businessman Goolam Noon, who gave £10,000.

Ed Balls also received £3,000 from the businessman Sir Trevor Chinn.