Labour membership sinks to lowest level in 10 years under Starmer
Labour Party membership has sunk to its lowest level in a decade under Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, figures reveal.
The party lost 37,000 members last year, bringing its total membership at the end of 2023 to 370,450, according to Labour’s official accounts.
The figure marks a new low for Labour membership under Sir Keir, compared to 532,000 members recorded in 2019 when Jeremy Corbyn was leader.
The latest figures represent the lowest total number of members supporting the party since 2014, when Labour introduced its “one person one vote” system that gave members and MPs equal sway in leadership contests. Membership doubled the following year to 388,000
The recent 9 per cent fall is also the party’s steepest year-on-year decline in membership since 2003, when it dipped by 13 per cent, down from 248,300 to 215,000, following the invasion of Iraq.
Despite a drop in membership, the party reported a loss of £851,000 as it ramped up spending ahead of the election - a smaller deficit than expected.
The party had originally been forecast to lose £2.5 million throughout 2023.
Treasurer David Evans attributed this to “an increase in high-value donations”, offsetting investment in staffing levels and technology and the move to a “more appropriate” head office.
Millions in donations
Labour was not alone in seeing a decline in membership in 2023, with the Liberal Democrats losing around 11,000 members.
Although the Conservatives do not publish membership figures, income for the party from membership fees fell from £1.97 million to £1.5 million.
This continued a downward trend from £2.21 million in 2019, when Boris Johnson was leader.
But where Labour recorded a deficit in 2023, both the Lib Dems and Conservatives recorded surpluses.
A significant boost in donations and income from its party conference saw the Liberal Democrats end 2023 with a surplus of £271,258, while the Conservatives managed a surplus of £17.9 million – helped by a £10 million endowment from Lord John Sainsbury.
In his report on the accounts, signed off the day before Rishi Sunak called this year’s election, Tory treasurer Alan Mabbutt said the party had enjoyed its most successful fundraising quarter in a non-election year at the start of 2023.
He said: “The board remains confident that sufficient funding will be generated in 2024 to build on this positive result and support the spending ambitions of a general election campaign.”
During the campaign itself, the Tories struggled to raise money. In the two weeks after the election was called, they brought in a tenth of the private donations they received during the same period in 2019. By contrast, Labour secured millions in donations.
Reform’s membership grows ‘significantly’
In Scotland, the Scottish National Party’s membership fell sharply, with around 190,000 members deserting the party over the year.
Between 2019 and 2023, membership of the SNP almost halved from 125,691 to 64,525.
Both the Green Party and Reform UK saw their party membership rise, with the former reaching 53,000 - up from 49,000 in 2019. Although Reform does not publish its figures, it claimed its membership had grown “significantly”.
The party, led by Nigel Farage, also reported total donations of £1.3 million for the year, almost double the total for 2022 – although only £295,000 of that was eligible to be reported to the Electoral Commission.
At the time, donations of less than £7,500 did not have to be reported – a figure that has since increased to £11,180.