Labour gets membership boost
By Marina Kim
Labour membership has seen a boost following the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition, and the departure of Gordon Brown as leader.
“A record-breaking number of people joined the Labour Party today. 1000% increase on usual daily rate,” said a post on the party’s Twitter page the day after the election.
Thousands of people have joined Labour since Friday when Nick Clegg first announced talks with the Conservatives, the party says.
And a further 2292 people signed up yesterday, with more than 620 people joining this morning, perhaps encouraged by seeing David Cameron become prime minister backed by the Lib Dems.
A Labour spokesman posted that the influx of new members had broken their internet server.
Nobody from party headquarters was available to comment.
Postings on the party’s website from new Labour members have a clear anti-Lib Dem flavour. Amy from Chesterfield said she joined the Labour because she “was appalled that Nick Clegg has backed the Tories.” Others said they felt “betrayed by their coalition with the Conservatives”.
A spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats said: “Our figures have also been growing for the past few weeks”, but she was unable to give an exact number. She would also not comment on the influx of the Labour party members.
A Conservative party spokesman said: “I think it’s fair to say they [Labour] are starting from rather a low base.”
He said it would take time to obtain new members’ figure for the Conservative party because “they are hold by local party offices, and not in the central office.”
