Labour_Party_membership_graph.svg
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Summary
| Description |
English:
Graph of Labour Party membership numbers (full individual members, excluding e.g. affiliates, registered supporters).
|
| Date | |
| Source | Own work , based primarily on data from House of Commons Library briefing notes (see below) |
| Author | Rwendland |
| Other versions |
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This plot was created with
Gnuplot
.
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Data
The main data comes from Table 4 (pages 22-23) of Membership of UK Political Parties (House of Commons Library briefing note SN/SG/5125, Richard Keen, 30/01/2015) , and is presented there in thousands. I have multiplied the number given there by 1000, so if more accurate data becomes available it is easy to insert. 2014+ (and 2013 to more precision) is based on Labour Party accounts available at electoralcommission.org.uk. URLs are given in the table where the source is not the House of Commons Library briefing note.
I also recorded from 2015 onward some media reports, but now have adopted the policy of only using HOCL and accounts numbers, as this other data cannot be assumed to be reliable, eg inconsistent handling of members in arrears, or originating from unreliable leaks possibly to make some factional point. I have left this now unused data in below, but commented out.
Note the Labour Party Rule Book states that membership lapses after arrears of six months to give time for members to be reminded to renew, so there will be a significant difference between currently fully paid-up member numbers (part of eligibility to vote in internal elections) and the total membership number. Also there will be some delay from a member deciding not to renew and removal from membership data.
Note that I think there was a new basis for producing the numbers in 1980, from a summation of membership data recorded at the constituency level, to a more accurate centralised individual membership database.
# Date, LabourMembers, Other data source
1928-12-31, 215000
1929-12-31, 228000
1930-12-31, 277000
1931-12-31, 297000
1932-12-31, 372000
1933-12-31, 366000
1934-12-31, 381000
1935-12-31, 419000
1936-12-31, 431000
1937-12-31, 447000
1938-12-31, 429000
1939-12-31, 409000
1940-12-31, 304000
1941-12-31, 227000
1942-12-31, 219000
1943-12-31, 236000
1944-12-31, 266000
1945-12-31, 487000
1946-12-31, 645000
1947-12-31, 608000
1948-12-31, 629000
1949-12-31, 730000
1950-12-31, 908000
1951-12-31, 876000
1952-12-31, 1015000
1953-12-31, 1005000
1954-12-31, 934000
1955-12-31, 843000
1956-12-31, 845000
1957-12-31, 913000
1958-12-31, 889000
1959-12-31, 845000
1960-12-31, 790000
1961-12-31, 751000
1962-12-31, 767000
1963-12-31, 830000
1964-12-31, 830000
1965-12-31, 817000
1966-12-31, 776000
1967-12-31, 734000
1968-12-31, 701000
1969-12-31, 681000
1970-12-31, 680000
1971-12-31, 700000
1972-12-31, 703000
1973-12-31, 665000
1974-12-31, 692000
1975-12-31, 675000
1976-12-31, 659000
1977-12-31, 660000
1978-12-31, 676000
1979-12-31, 666000
1980-12-31, 348000
1981-12-31, 277000
1982-12-31, 274000
1983-12-31, 295000
1984-12-31, 323000
1985-12-31, 313000
1986-12-31, 297000
1987-12-31, 289000
1988-12-31, 266000
1989-12-31, 294000
1990-12-31, 311000
1991-12-31, 261000
1992-12-31, 280000
1993-12-31, 266000
1994-12-31, 305000
1995-12-31, 365000
1996-12-31, 400000
1997-12-31, 405000
1998-12-31, 388000
1999-12-31, 361000
2000-12-31, 311000
2001-12-31, 272000
2002-12-31, 248000
2003-12-31, 215000
2004-12-31, 201000
2005-12-31, 198000
2006-12-31, 182000
2007-12-31, 177000
2008-12-31, 166000
2009-12-31, 156000
2010-12-31, 193000
2011-12-31, 193000
2012-12-31, 187000
2013-12-31, 189531, 2014 accounts: http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/16479
2014-12-31, 193754, 2014 accounts: http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/16479
#2015-05-06, 201293, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jan/13/revealed-how-jeremy-corbyn-has-reshaped-the-labour-party
#2015-08-25, 292505, http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/four-labour-leadership-candidates-rule-6316659
2015-12-31, 388262, 2015 accounts: http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/17488
#2016-01-10, 388407, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jan/13/revealed-how-jeremy-corbyn-has-reshaped-the-labour-party
#2016-06-30, 450000, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-party-gains-60000-new-members-following-attempted-coup-against-corbyn-a7112336.html
#2016-07-07, 503143, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/08/jeremy-corbyn-stands-defiant-after-labour-membership-surge
2016-12-31, 543645, 2016 accounts: http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/19405
#2017-03-01, 528180, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/03/labour-party-lost-members-mid-2016
#2017-03-26, 517000, http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN05125 (2017-03-28)
#2017-06-13, 552000, http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-party-membership-soars-by-33000-in-four-days-since-general-election_uk_59400feee4b0e84514ee930f
#2017-07-18, 575000, Labour NEC member: https://aliceperry.wordpress.com/2017/07/20/labour-nec-report-july-2017/
#2017-09-20, 569000, https://www.totalpolitics.com/articles/opinion/kevin-maguire-peace-could-yet-break-out-labour-conference
#2017-11-26, 568500, Labour NEC member: http://www.leftfutures.org/2017/12/pete-willsman-reports-from-labours-november-executive/
2017-12-31, 564443, 2017 accounts: http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/20546
#2018-04, 540000, HoC research report repeating Labourlist estimate: https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN05125
#2018-09-03, 540000, HoC research report repeating Labourlist estimate: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/parliament-and-elections/parliament/uk-political-party-membership-figures-august-2018/
#2018-12-31, 518000, Labour NEC member: https://labourlist.org/2019/07/selections-membership-figures-antisemitism-alice-perrys-latest-nec-report/
2018-12-31, 518659, 2018 accounts: http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/21510
#undated - published 2019-07-23, 485000, https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/labour-party/news/105507/excl-labour-membership-dips-below-half-million
2019-12-31, 532046, 2019 accounts: http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/22602
#2020-01, 580000, Labour NEC member: https://labourlist.org/2020/01/what-happened-at-labours-nec-post-election-away-day/
#2020-06-30, 580000, Labour NEC member: https://labourlist.org/2020/06/action-over-leaked-report-virtual-meetings-nec-elections-alice-perrys-nec-report/
#2020-07, 430000, https://web.archive.org/web/20210801070808/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/huge-legal-bills-leave-labour-feeling-the-pinch-vfx2qh97h
#2020-08-24, 495961, Eligible voters in NEC election published 2020-11-12: https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/1/M1824_1_ReportofVoting_1311_NEC.pdf
2020-12-31, 523332, 2020 accounts: http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/22905
#2021-01, 400000, https://labourlist.org/2022/01/labour-beset-by-difficulties-as-party-does-not-have-full-up-to-date-membership-list/
2021-12-31, 432213, 2021 accounts: http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/24331
#2022-07, 415000, Andrew Fisher: https://twitter.com/FisherAndrew79/status/1550137089689370624
2022-12-31, 407445, 2022 accounts: https://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/25317
#2023-05-23, 395811, GenSec report to NEC (including in arrears): https://labourlist.org/2023/06/labour-party-members-numbers-membership-how-many-big/
#2023-07, 399195, GenSec report to NEC (including in arrears): https://labourlist.org/2023/07/labour-nec-report-forde-npf-by-elections-conference-keir-starmer/
Gnuplot script
This graph was produced using gnuplot, running on Linux. The gnuplot input/program is given below. I am a gnuplot novice and any improvements offered would be welcome.
set term svg size 900,600 name "Labour_Party_membership"
set termoption font ',18' # just to size space for axis
set xdata time
set timefmt '%Y-%m-%d'
set datafile separator ','
set format x "%Y"
set format y "%.0f"
set yrange [0:1100000]
set ytics font "Arial, 28"
# Only standard way to get comma into tic names, though %'d maybe an extension format:
set ytics ('200,000' 200000, '400,000' 400000, '600,000' 600000, '800,000' 800000, '1,000,000' 1000000)
# Does not work with textual tics as above:
# set mytics 2
set xrange ["1928-01-01":"2024-01-01"]
set xtics "1920-01-01", 10*12*2629746, "2020-01-01"
# set xtics add ("2021-01-01")
set mxtics 2
set xtics rotate by 60 right font "Arial, 28"
# set title 'Labour Party membership'
# set ylabel 'members'
# set xlabel 'year'
set grid noxtics
set grid ytics
set output 'Labour_Party_membership_graph.svg'
# New Labour red = #E30030
plot 'Labour_Party_membership_graph.csv' using 1:2 with lines notitle lt rgb "red" lw 3