LABOUR has lost around 10,000 members in just two months, according to reports.
At a meeting of the ruling National Executive Committee this week, it was revealed the party now has 385,324 fully paid-up members, with another 13,871 in arrears.
At the last NEC in June, it was reported that membership stood at 395,811 with 17,223 in arrears.
It marks a major decrease from the approximately 415,000 activists in July last year and a significant fall from the peak of 546,443 at the end of 2017, when Jeremy Corbyn was still leader.
It is not currently known what the current membership numbers of Scottish Labour are although the most recent figure of around 16,000 dates from 2021.
The latest statistics were revealed on the blog of NEC member Luke Akehurst.
He also shared that the next meeting of the NEC would be held in Scotland this September.
At the NEC, senior Labour figures discusses last week’s by-elections after the failed attempt to win Boris Johnson’s old seat in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
Labour came within 495 votes of winning the seats but put the narrow defeat down to Labour mayor Sadiq Khan’s planned expansion of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone to outer London.
Labour’s general secretary David Evans did however tell the ruling body that the party’s victory in Selby and Ainsty “changes the weather for any Tory MP with a majority of under 24,000”.
He also added that there would be “an evaluation and review of both by-election campaigns so that lessons learned can be incorporated into the campaigns in Tamworth, Mid-Bedfordshire and Rutherglen & Hamilton West”.
However, there are still a number of steps to be completed before a by-election is called in the Scottish constituency.
A recall petition was triggered after MPs backed a thirty-day suspension from the Commons for former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier (below) after she admitted travelling on a train in September 2020 despite knowing she had Covid.
The petition remains open until next Monday and, should 8113 of Ferrier’s constituents sign, then a by-election will be triggered.
However, this could not be arranged until the House of Commons returns from its summer recess in September.
