{"id":312707,"date":"2025-12-12T20:50:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T20:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/312707\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T20:50:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T20:50:10","slug":"reform-claims-to-now-have-more-members-than-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/312707\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform claims to now have more members than Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Becky MortonPolitical reporter<\/p>\n

\"EPAEPA<\/p>\n

Reform UK claims it is now the largest political party in Britain, following reports Labour has lost more members.<\/p>\n

According to the Times newspaper<\/a>, internal figures show Labour’s membership has fallen below 250,000.<\/p>\n

Reform said it had more than 268,000 paid-up members, which would mean it has overtaken Labour to become the biggest party by membership in the UK.<\/p>\n

Labour refused to comment on the accuracy of the membership figures in the Times, with a spokesperson saying they would be published in the party’s annual report.<\/p>\n

There is no legal obligation for political parties to publish their membership figures, which are not verified by outside bodies.<\/p>\n

Reform tracks its membership figures using a live online counter<\/a>, which the party said only included people who had paid an annual fee of \u00a325 or \u00a310 for under-25s.<\/p>\n

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “As we have suspected for some time, Reform has overtaken Labour to become the largest political party in British politics – a huge milestone on our journey to win the next election. <\/p>\n

“The age of two-party politics is dead.”<\/p>\n

The party has consistently been leading in national opinion polls since the spring.<\/p>\n

Labour’s membership has been steadily falling since Sir Keir Starmer became leader in April 2020, according to the latest publicly available figures.<\/p>\n

The party’s annual accounts published in August put the party’s membership at 333,235 at the end of last year, down from a peak of more than 530,000 under Jeremy Corbyn.<\/p>\n

Despite the party’s landslide election victory, it shed 37,000 members over the course of 2024 and reports suggest this trend has continued.<\/p>\n

In February, the LabourList website reported<\/a> the party’s membership had fallen to around 309,000 and the Times says the figure has now dropped below 250,000.<\/p>\n

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Our membership figures are published in our annual report. We do not give a running a commentary on them throughout the year.”<\/p>\n

The party’s standard membership fee is \u00a370.50 a year, with reduced rates of \u00a335.50 or \u00a312 available for certain groups<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Mainstream network, a new Labour campaign group which includes supporters of Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, said: “To transform Britain and defeat the far-right, Labour needs a grassroots movement in every community.<\/p>\n

“Our plummeting membership figures prove the top-down model has failed. The answer is to democratise, open up, and empower members.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Green Party says it has seen a surge in membership since Zack Polanski took over as the party’s new leader in September, rising from around 70,000 to more than 180,000.<\/p>\n

The Conservatives do not routinely publish their membership figures.<\/p>\n

Some 131,680 members were eligible to vote in last year’s Tory leadership election but reports suggest the party’s membership has fallen to around 123,000 since then.<\/p>\n

The number of Liberal Democrat members has also dropped, almost having over the last five years to around 60,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Your Party – the new left-wing outfit founded by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana – says it has 55,000 paid-up members.<\/p>\n

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