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Labour has lost almost 200,000 members in the past five years, according to the party’s latest annual accounts. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
However, it is still the largest political party in the UK, with 333,235 members at the end of last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Labour sources said membership numbers tend to fluctuate between elections and the party was proud to still be the biggest in the country.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Reform UK, which saw success in last year’s general election and May’s local elections, says its membership has surged. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 \u00a3500,000. <\/p>\n
Around 131,680 people were eligible to vote in last year’s Tory leadership election, 40,000 fewer than in the 2022 contest.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n In the early years of Corbyn’s leadership the number of Labour member’s surged, before starting to fall from 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Labour and the Conservatives reported financial deficits in 2024. <\/p>\n Labour’s accounts said last year’s loss of \u00a33.8m reflected “the need to respond at pace to shifting circumstances in the general election campaign”.<\/p>\n The party spent \u00a394.5m over the course of the year. <\/p>\n The Conservatives said they had fought the most expensive election campaign in the party’s history, spending \u00a352m over the year, with a loss of \u00a31.9m.<\/p>\n The Liberal Democrats, Reform UK and the Greens all recorded surpluses at the end of the year.<\/p>\n While accounts for the other parties were published by the Electoral Commission on Thursday<\/a>, Labour’s figures were published on the party’s own website<\/a>. <\/p>\n 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”.<\/p>\n It is understood they were submitted slightly late due to unforeseen administrative delays.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n