{"id":452419,"date":"2026-03-01T19:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T19:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/452419\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T19:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T19:08:12","slug":"green-party-membership-in-uk-passes-200000-after-byelection-victory-green-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/452419\/","title":{"rendered":"Green party membership in UK passes 200,000 after byelection victory | Green party"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Green party<\/a> said its membership had passed 200,000 this weekend in the wake of its victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection, in which it overturned a huge Labour majority.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s membership has tripled since September last year, when it was about 68,000, after the announcement of Zack Polanski<\/a> as its leader.<\/p>\n

The Green victory in Gorton and Denton<\/a> is its first in a national byelection, forcing Labour into third place with Reform in second.<\/p>\n

The Greens now have five MPs and are regularly matching the Lib Dems in the polls while snapping at the heels of Labour and the Conservatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The newly elected MP for Gorton and Denton, Hannah Spencer, celebrates the result with Green party volunteers. Photograph: Ryan Jenkinson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Labour is under pressure from some of its MPs to steer more to the left to win back progressive voters from the Greens after the byelection result, where 34-year-old plumber Hannah Spencer was elected<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Polanski said: \u201cThis membership surge proves that the future of progressive politics belongs to the Greens.\u201d He described it as a \u201cpolitical turning point\u201d, with its members joining a \u201cmovement that refuses to accept managed decline, climate delay or timid politics\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cGreens are not here to be disappointed by Labour<\/a>, but to replace them. We will not wait politely for change; we are building it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Figures released last summer suggested Labour was still the UK\u2019s largest political party with more than 330,000 members \u2013 down from more than 500,000 in 2019. However, a report in the Times put it lower, at fewer than 250,000 late last year \u2013 fewer than Reform UK<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The number of Conservative party members is not known but is thought to be about 120,000, while Reform UK says it has more than 270,000. Figures published in August suggest that Lib Dem membership was last recorded at about 80,000.<\/p>\n

High membership numbers do not necessarily translate into electoral success, with Labour having had a peak of more than 500,000 members under Jeremy Corbyn, who lost two general elections<\/a>. However, they are an indication of how much the party is enthusing its core base whose support can lead to higher levels of volunteering and activism during an election.<\/p>\n

The Greens\u2019 surge has caused worries among some senior Labour figures, who believe Polanski\u2019s party could take votes and seats from theirs in May\u2019s local elections in England, particularly in some London boroughs.<\/p>\n

Polanski has repeatedly set out the Greens\u2019 ambition to supplant Labour. In his speech to his party\u2019s annual conference, he said that without action Keir Starmer would \u201chand this country on a plate\u201d to Reform UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Green party said its membership had passed 200,000 this weekend in the wake of its victory in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-452419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}