THE donations made to two Black Country MPs have been revealed.

MPs are required to declare their financial interests within 28 days of the start of a new Parliament. They must also disclose any gifts or benefits they receive that could be reasonably considered to influence what they say or do as MPs.

Newly-elected MPs must disclose any relevant financial interests from the year prior to their election.

The figures show Kingswinford and South Staffordshire MP Mike Wood received £7,750 in donations in the last year and newly-elected Stourbridge MP Cat Eccles received £20,000.

In total, 498 MPs reported donations they received. Labour MPs received the highest amount, totalling £9.3 million, followed by the Liberal Democrats with £3.2 million, and the Conservatives with £1.7 million.

Labour's Yvette Cooper was the top recipient, securing £393,000, including £210,000 from former Autoglass CEO Gary Lubner to fund "three additional members of staff for my office over the next 18 months."

Labour MPs Ed Miliband and Rachel Reeves each received over £300,000 in donations.

Gifts such as tickets to football games and concerts were also declared as well as costly overseas visits by several MPs.

Rose Whiffen, senior research officer at Transparency International UK, said: "Politicians should be careful when accepting gifts and hospitality from private interests.

"Enjoying the generosity of companies and wealthy individuals risks the appearance of benefitting personally from their public role and damages trust in our political system, "Decision makers should ask themselves why they're being taken care of so generously and what expectations of them may follow."

She added: "To avoid perceptions of undue influence it should be clear that any decisions they make are in the wider public interest and not just their financial backers.

"This would be greatly assisted by a comprehensive lobbying register. A cap on individual donations would also help improve the perception that money can buy access."

Stourbridge Labour MP Cat Eccles, who was elected in the July General Election, said: “I was very grateful to receive donations from the Labour Party and Unite the Union, who also endorsed my candidacy, to enable me to run a comprehensive campaign.

“There are strict rules around campaign spending and donations and everything is published in the public domain.

“These donations helped the local party to reach every corner of the constituency with our General Election message and deliver a democratic victory on July 4."