THE Scottish Labour membership collapsed by a third during Anas Sarwar’s leadership, according to a candidate to replace him.
In a hustings for the trade union Unison last week, North East MSP Michael Marra – thought to be the frontrunner in the Scottish Labour leadership race – claimed the total number now stood at 11,000, according to The Daily Record.
This is significantly down on the 16,467 figure revealed by the newspaper in 2021, when Sarwar took the helm. It is also a stark amount fewer than the 25,836 members the party had in 2018.
The SNP, meanwhile, have recently dropped to 51,000 members. The Scottish Greens are just below Scottish Labour, after exceeding 10,000 members this year for the first time.
The Scottish Tories don’t publish their figures.
Speaking to The Daily Record, fellow leadership candidate and Glasgow MSP Monica Lennon said: “It’s obvious that Scottish Labour has taken a dip in popularity, evidenced by us only returning 17 MSPs at the Scottish Parliament elections in May, but our party has been on a steady decline for years.
"This is due to a lack of ambition, an inability to learn from past failures and an unwillingness to adapt quickly enough to an ever-changing political landscape and this will of course impact on our membership numbers.”
She added: “If I am elected the next leader of Scottish Labour I have no doubt our membership numbers will increase because people will see that we are a party of purpose, a party of doing rather than a party of empty words. If we want to be a party that leads the way in Scottish politics then our members have to be at the heart of everything that we do.”
The final contender in the race is South Scotland MSP Joe Fagan, with the three set to go head-to-head at a party hustings on Wednesday night.
