Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP says 500 members have left his local party since 2016 peak. Membership numbers disagree
Last week, so-called ‘moderate’ MP Neil Coyle claimed that five hundred members of his Bermondsey and Old Southwark (BOS) CLP (constitency Labour party) had quit the party since 2016:
I’ve lost 500 members since the peak at the end of 2016. That’s not just because of Brexit, but the vast majority have left because of the European fudge.
This was picked up by various ‘mainstream’ media:
But Coyle’s claim was challenged by a BOS member:
The SKWAWKBOX was able to verify the BOS membership and leaver figures. Membership of the CLP stands at around 1,800 – with only sixty leavers.
Coyle claimed that the ‘vast majority‘ of the five hundred leavers have ‘left because of the European fudge‘.
The SKWAWKBOX contacted Mr Coyle for comment several days ago about his claim. Neither he nor his office responded.
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When are his CLP going to chuck this Blairite turncoat out? What are they waiting for?
Why does Neil Coyle delight in the alleged loss of Labour members? If he was more than a Labour MP in name only he would distressed about this.
I remember seeing him on TV when May announced the snap election. He was on complaining about Staffers in the leaders office and indirectly about Jeremy Corbyn, he complained about Jeremy after the election and he’s still at it.
500, such a nice round figure……..
This is bring the party into disrepute and giving succour to the party’s opponents. When the feck is the party gonna do something about it?!
I thought it was Diane Abbott couldn’t count?
It was the bbc last week with the ‘hundreds’ of seats labour lost – that turned out to be less than 100. Now coyle’s out by 440 out of 1800?
Think he should be pulled by the MSM on this…
Since most ‘membership leavers’ just lapse without any communication, what is being reported here is a more generalised disappointment about internal divisions and its effect on our activity rates. A few vocal individuals do make resignation declarations of course, and those with ill driven motivations choose to interpret those statements as generalisations of all lapses – most of whom have no strong mission other than loss of early period of enthusiasm combined with the £40 odd entry fee.
Good point that in reality most ‘membership leavers’ do not communicate their reasons for leaving. This rather annihilates Neil Coyle’s claims.
But hero worship of Corbyn (often implicit or explicit in Skwarkie’s pieces and some Comments) tends to cloud the fact that, outside the Corbynista hothouse, there is indeed generalised disappointment and a general loss of enthusiasm.
This is because there isn’t really much of a “Corbyn project”. If there were, we on the Left would regularly be inspired by the radicalism and dynamism of the economic programme which the leadership team were gagging to implement. And the Labour Right wing would be in daily revolt at the leadership’s economic intentions, instead of having to fall back on the “People’s Vote” or anti-Semitism arguments.
Moreover, if there were a radical and dynamic economic programme it would entirely drive our attitude to Brexit and to any Brexit deal, compelling the need to have all economic tools at our disposal in order to bring about a socialistic transformation.
And just who exactly is going to deliver this?
What you call “hero worship” some of us call “support.”
Some replies here are getting whiney, annoying and repetitive as a teething infant.
If you think another leader would do better than Corbyn, WHO?
Many/most not even through “generalised disappointment about internal divisions”. Sadly members die or become incapable through old age. With a membership of 1800, and say an average joining age of 40, you’d expect about 45 members per year to leave through ageing. So since the date Coyle gave, 2016, around 100 would have left through ageing. So most likely the problem is in fact not getting enough new members to join Coyle’s CLP.
First rule of engagement is your enemy should never know what hit them
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
Not fit to be a member
How many have left because of him?
The problem is, you cannot unring a bell. Coyle and any of the other ne’r do wells have the eager ear of the press and can make outrageous claims with no consequence.