Late last year, the SKWAWKBOX named a new membership figure for the Labour party of 630,000, based on figures provided by an HQ contact.
This figure turned out to be incorrect – we’re still working on identifying why. The latest official figure is 540,000, still great but a substantial difference.
Would the number be higher if the membership had not been so poorly treated by the party’s old guard? Probably.
More than ever change is needed and those holding the members in contempt need to step aside or be removed, so the party can both move and grow, unhindered.
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Thanks for updating this. It’s important for us all that we have correct data. At the same time its important to celebrate a figure of well over half a million. At the end of 2014 we were at 180,000, so this is still a very big advance.
As a CLP Chair when I saw the 630,000 claim, I said straightaway it did not tally with CLP membership figures and trends I knew of and said the real number looked more like 540-550k. I also went and checked with other CLP’s to verify the data, which is why I continued to query the numbers here and with MP’s online and also pressed NEC members for the data. From the evidence I had, membership was at 552,000 in September and is a very stable 540,000 at present. This is good news and as I say above is a massive improvement on the past, which we should celebrate.
I can understand that some members might think membership would continue to surge ever upwards so I can understand the enthusiasm for any rumoured number that might support that mindset. However it is important to remember that at least 30k joined to vote for Owen Smith and it would be inevitable some of them would choose to resign since September, thus the narrative was not going to be one of an ongoing rise but more a peak, then a small drop and then stability, but hopefully a further rise in the run up to the local elections when we see maximum local activity.
This ongoing trend is why it is important for none of us to overstate membership and where possible use quotable public sources as we hopefully see membership build further. At the same time building contacts across 10-20 CLP’s means it is then easy to check data. I am very happy to be one of those CLP’s you can check with in future