Labour membership slides however occasion enjoys monetary enhance as Tory earnings falls
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abour Party membership continued to slip final yr even because the occasion loved one in every of its most financially profitable years in current historical past.
Annual accounts printed by the Electoral Commission on Thursday present Labour had 407,445 members on the finish of 2022, down nearly 25,000 in contrast with 2021.
This was properly beneath the current membership peak recorded on the finish of 2019, when there have been 532,046 Labour members.
But Labour nonetheless achieved a few of its highest earnings ranges exterior an election yr, elevating £47.2 million and returning a £2.7 million surplus after dropping £5.2 million in 2021.
A report from occasion treasurer David Evans mentioned “difficult decisions” on decreasing prices had contributed to returning Labour to surplus, whereas membership earnings “exceeded targets” because of new members and “an improved rate of retention”.
Those troublesome choices are prone to have included making a number of employees members redundant in 2021, with employees prices falling by round £6 million final yr.
Labour additionally loved a rise of round £500,000 in earnings from donations, whereas earnings from fundraising dinners rose from £10,000 in 2021 to £323,000 a yr later.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives recorded a lack of £2.3 million in what the occasion described as a “turbulent year”.
Income from donations fell by £2.4 million in contrast with 2021, with occasion officers saying this was partly because of “donor pledges moving into 2023”.
The occasion doesn’t publish its complete membership determine, however earnings from membership charges fell barely from £1.99 million to £1.97 million. Around 170,000 individuals had been eligible to vote in the summertime management election final yr.
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The Liberal Democrats recorded a deficit of £753,789 in 2022, including a £185,839 loss incurred due to cancelling the party’s annual conference following the death of Elizabeth II.
The party did, however, record a slight increase in membership from 94,706 to 97,493.
The SNP recorded a deficit of £804,000 throughout 2022, which it mentioned was not “out of keeping with other years in which nationwide elections were fought”.
The occasion’s accounts additionally present a big decline in membership for the reason that finish of 2021, when there had been 103,884 SNP members.
By the top of 2022, that determine had fallen to 82,598, whereas the accounts present that quantity had fallen even additional by the top of June 2023, reaching 73,936.