Author Archives: Will Howells

Local parties: membership falls but activism increases

By Will Howells | Thu 19th October 2006 - 4:29 pm

A report published today by the Unlock Democracy campaign has found that average membership of Liberal Democrat parties fell slightly in the last five years, but that levels of activism increased. This compares with a dramatic fall in membership and activism for Labour constituency parties and an increase in the sizes, but not in activism, of Conservative Associations.

Local Politics: A Case for Treatment? serves as a health check for local parties as a measure of the state of democracy in the uK. The detailed figures come from surveys of local parties across the country and show an interesting picture. Although Liberal Democrat local party membership dipped slightly on average, in held seats with small majorities and in target seats there were significant increases. In all but the most solid LibDem seats, party members have become more active since 2001.

While the membership of Conservative Associations in held seats increased, critically membership levels in their target seats fell. It is a similar story with income levels which improved in most held seats but dropped in the majority of Tory targets, suggesting that the Conservative Party is still on the defensive.