The Liberal Democrats have reached their highest ever membership!
We’ve just gone over the high watermark of 101,768 set in 1994.
The landmark comes as Tim Farron heads to Oxford to rally activists for the party’s final push of the local election campaign.
More than 14,000 new members have joined the Liberal Democrats in the two weeks since the General Election was called. More than 50,000 members have joined since last year’s European referendum and nearly 70,000 since the 2015 General Election.
Tim Farron pledged to build the party to 100,000 members by the end of the parliament as a key pledge during his 2015 leadership campaign – but at that point everyone expected the end of the parliament to be 2020.
Tim said:
We are going into these local elections bigger than ever before, with a clear message and a growing sense of momentum.
In many of the counties where these elections are taking place it is the Liberal Democrats who are the main challengers to the Conservatives. Liberal Democrat councillors are the strong opposition to the Conservatives across the country, standing up to them on cuts to schools and elderly care.
You don’t need to agree with us on everything to agree that Britain needs a strong opposition to fight for you and your communities against Tory cuts to our schools, our NHS and our social care services. In county halls just as in Westminster, Liberal Democrats are that strong opposition that Britain needs.
New members might want to read our whistle-stop tour round the party.
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8 Comments
Fantastic news! Timing couldn’t be better 🙂
Yes: but another morning goes by, the headlines Conservative and Labour the latter on the NHS. Where are we?
I hope things go well tomorrow, after which we must change our tack, forget Brexit, get stuck in, say things that the media will pick up, even if totally controversial. At the moment we are not in this General Election, mainly due to our own approach and apparent failings. The old adage the only bad publicity is no publicity seems to sum us up.
The challenge now is to to turn membership into activism. Don’t neglect these new shoots.
I was struck by a clip on News Night yesterday evening. They were filming inside Momentum. Real energy and commitment.
One of my brothers joined after exasperation of Theresa May refusing to guarantee the right to stay for his wife and mother of his child. He’s already been out leafletting, putting me to shame! 🙂
WE NEED MORE MEDIA COVERAGE!!!
The best thing about these new members is that most of them are getting very involved in the campaign (not always the case in 1994) so they are having a real impact on the ground!
By Sunday we should know how the Media will react to Thursdays results. There will be lots of new facts but its up to Journalists which of them will be woven into The “Story”. The only way we can influence them is by looking happy & making a lot of noise.
The next 4 days may well determine how the rest of the Election Campaign develops.
@paul barker “The next 4 days may well determine how the rest of the Election Campaign develops.”
For all parties, good results will be an endorsement of their national position (especially on Brexit) and poor results will be because of particular local issues.
Or so they’d have us believe … 😉