Membership of the main political parties continued to fall last year despite Westminster gearing up for a general election, according to newly published accounts. Labour lost 37,000 more members during 2023, leaving its total membership at 370,450 at the end of the year. Although it still has the most members of any UK party, the figure is significantly down from a peak of 532,046 at the end of 2019. The Liberal Democrats saw their membership fall by around 11,000 to 86,599, though the party said it had seen a rise in new members since its gains in July’s general election.The Conservatives do not publish membership figures, but their income from membership fees fell from £1.97m to £1.5m. However, the Green Party saw its membership remain stable at around 53,000. Reform UK said its membership had grown “significantly”, although it did not publish figures.A spokesperson for left-wing Labour campaign group Momentum blamed the fall in party membership on “the deliberate decisions of the Labour Party leadership to reject the transformative, popular policies necessary to rebuild Britain”.”In addition, the leadership has repeatedly attacked pluralism and the rights of party members in order to weaken the left and threaten independent-minded voices within the Party,” the spokesperson said. “This may seem like smart politics at the moment but in the long-run Labour needs an active, engaged, mass membership to retain its political relevance.”A Labour Party spokesperson said it had gained thousands of new members since the general election. “With Keir Starmer’ …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnMembership of the main political parties continued to fall last year despite Westminster gearing up for a general election, according to newly published accounts. Labour lost 37,000 more members during 2023, leaving its total membership at 370,450 at the end of the year. Although it still has the most members of any UK party, the figure is significantly down from a peak of 532,046 at the end of 2019. The Liberal Democrats saw their membership fall by around 11,000 to 86,599, though the party said it had seen a rise in new members since its gains in July’s general election.The Conservatives do not publish membership figures, but their income from membership fees fell from £1.97m to £1.5m. However, the Green Party saw its membership remain stable at around 53,000. Reform UK said its membership had grown “significantly”, although it did not publish figures.A spokesperson for left-wing Labour campaign group Momentum blamed the fall in party membership on “the deliberate decisions of the Labour Party leadership to reject the transformative, popular policies necessary to rebuild Britain”.”In addition, the leadership has repeatedly attacked pluralism and the rights of party members in order to weaken the left and threaten independent-minded voices within the Party,” the spokesperson said. “This may seem like smart politics at the moment but in the long-run Labour needs an active, engaged, mass membership to retain its political relevance.”A Labour Party spokesperson said it had gained thousands of new members since the general election. “With Keir Starmer’ …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
