Labour has lost almost 200,000 members in the past five years, according to the party’s latest annual accounts.
The party’s membership has been steadily falling since Sir Keir Starmer became leader in April 2020, from a peak of 532,046 at the end of 2019.
Despite the party’s landslide election victory last summer, it shed another 37,215 members over the course of 2024, around 10% of its total membership at the start of the year.
However, it is still the largest political party in the UK, with 333,235 members at the end of last year.
Labour sources said membership numbers tend to fluctuate between elections and the party was proud to still be the biggest in the country.
Meanwhile, Reform UK, which saw success in last year’s general election and May’s local elections, says its membership has surged.
Nigel Farage’s party did not include a membership figure in its own annual accounts, published by the Electoral Commission on Thursday, but a ticker on Reform’s website claims it has more than 234,000 members.
The Liberal Democrats suffered a slight fall in membership from 86,599 to 83,174, despite the party achieving its best ever election results last year.
The Green Party of England and Wales, which won a record four seats in the general election, gained around 5,000 new members in 2024.
The Conservative Party does not routinely publish its membership figures in its annual accounts, but did record an increase in income from membership fees of around £500,000.
Around 131,680 people were eligible to vote in last year’s Tory leadership election, 40,000 fewer than in the 2022 contest.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said more than 650,000 people have signed up to his new party – which does not yet have an official name – following its launch in July.
However, these are only people who have shared their contact details to get involved, rather than paid members, and the party has not yet registered with the Electoral Commission.
In the early years of Corbyn’s leadership the number of Labour member’s surged, before starting to fall from 2018.
Labour and the Conservatives reported financial deficits in 2024.
Labour’s accounts said last year’s loss of £3.8m reflected “the need to respond at pace to shifting circumstances in the general election campaign”.
The party spent £94.5m over the course of the year.
The Conservatives said they had fought the most expensive election campaign in the party’s history, spending £52m over the year, with a loss of £1.9m.
The Liberal Democrats, Reform UK and the Greens all recorded surpluses at the end of the year.
While accounts for the other parties were published by the Electoral Commission on Thursday, Labour’s figures were published on the party’s own website.
The watchdog said the party did not submit its accounts in time to be included and a Labour spokesperson said they were expected to be published by the commission “imminently”.
It is understood they were submitted slightly late due to unforeseen administrative delays.
