At the beginning of this week, this blog published a ‘reasons to be cheerful‘ article that included a huge reason to be cheerful about the direction of the Labour party: the increase in its membership to an incredible 630,000.
That the party membership has increased by a further 79,000 since the leadership election – in spite of constant denigration by the media and undermining by the party’s right-whinge MPs, along with some dodgy polling, shows that the real message is still getting out there in spite of attempts to muffle it or drown it in negative noise.
Of course, the right-whinge of the party poured scorn on a number that hadn’t yet (wonder why) been officially confirmed by the party machine, with comments on this blog, on Twitter and, apparently (I don’t bother reading it) on the UK Labour Facebook group ridiculing the idea after ‘thousands’ supposedly left in ‘despair’ after Corbyn’s second election victory.
So I’m just going to leave this here, from Labour’s excellent front-bencher, Richard Burgon:
You read it here first.
Lots of work still to be done, but those spreading counsels of despair have their own agenda, so nil desperandum!
The SKWAWKBOX is provided free of charge but relies on the generosity of its readers so if you’re able, please click here to make a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your help.
This is very heartwarming, but I’ve trawled through the GE results and can’t find a single occasion when Labour achieved 50% or more of the popular vote. His idea of a progressive alliance within Labour is nonsense: it would never ever have the majority of votes. Even the Labour greats, such as Atlee, never achieved that.
The only way there can ever be a genuine majority to enact real electoral reform is through a one off progressive alliance with other parties. They need to grow up and accept reality. Labour has never been big enough on its own.
I’ll be saving this update just to remind people who succumb to the MSM and whinger Mp’s and loose heart, don’t increasing the membership after the leader election yet again is frankly incredible another reason to be joyful this time of year when things look so bleak for so many, a ray of hope on the horizon
We now have an official figure of 540,000 from an NEC member who confirms it is official. https://twitter.com/aliceperryuk/status/816979935449509888
This is an excellent number – over double of two years ago.
I have chased this issue for weeks because the 630,000 number did not accord to the change in membership in the CLP I Chair and I did not think it was accurate.
It’s vital that those of us who welcome the big leap in membership (my CLP is one of just 69 that nominated JC in 2015 and 2016) are nevertheless accurate in the numbers we give out. The 630,000 number was only ever a rumour and never confirmed by a party offical and two NEC members. 2 MP’s mentioned a figure of 630,000 (Burgon) and 600,000 McDonnell, but I suspect they based their numbers on your blog. Thus to avoid their embarrassment it is vital that you publish fully sourced data so we can all work from that in future. In other words this proves you are well read but you need to use that responsibility carefully when reporting things
As I say 540,000 is an excellent figure and we should all be proud of that