New figures show that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour is soaring, while the Tories are a ‘zombie party’

Since parliament went into recess, smears against Jeremy Corbyn haven’t stopped. But the latest party funding figures will be heartening news for Labour supporters – and grim reading for Theresa May’s party, which columnist Owen Jones has called “an actual zombie party”.
Zombie party
New figures from the Electoral Commission revealed that, in 2017, the Labour Party raised nearly £10m more than the Conservative Party:
In 2017, 10 parties reported income or expenditure of more than £250,000 compared to 12 in 2016. In total, these 10 parties reported £125,332,064 income and £122,193,805 expenditure.
Full details of the financial accounts published today are here:https://t.co/lOBptCxudj pic.twitter.com/S9g5rjpm1p
— Electoral Commission (@ElectoralCommUK) August 22, 2018
Read on...
But while May’s party coffers have slumped, the figures reveal something else too. As well as experiencing a significant drop in income – in the same year May slashed the Conservative majority in a snap general election – the Conservatives seem to have a dwindling support base. Because the party now earns more from dead supporters than it does from the living.
As the political editor of Business Insider wrote:
Last year the Conservatives made twice as much money from dead supporters as they did from living members. pic.twitter.com/ztySSDT8CU
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) August 22, 2018
The Conservative Party received nearly £1.7m from legacies and wills, compared with £835,000 in subscription fees from its 124,000 members registered in 2017. The party insists that this is because most of its income goes to local associations rather than the central party. But Conservative funds are still down.
Columnist Owen Jones summed up:
The Tories are an actual zombie party. https://t.co/xuiOplb6Fi
— Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) August 22, 2018
In contrast, membership fees for Labour surged to £16m:
buried in the Electoral Commission figures is fact that Tory party's income from membership has slumped from £1.46m to £835,000 in a year, for some reason…..compares to Labour getting £16m from membership subscriptions, up from £14m the previous year
— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) August 22, 2018
Walking dead
So not only is Labour now “Britain’s richest party”, but since Corbyn was elected as Labour leader in 2015, membership has grown from 190,000 Labour members to 552,000. It’s anticipated this may now be higher, but new figures won’t be released until the party conference in September.
The news is truly grim for the Tories. Not only is it trailing behind in terms of income and members, but part of Corbyn’s success has been activating support from younger voters.
As a YouGov survey revealed, demographics are changing and “age is the new class” when it comes to party support. In 2017, Labour was 19% ahead with 18-to-24-year-old voters, while the Conservatives had a 49% lead among the over 65s. But analysis showed a strong correlation for Labour winning seats in areas of high turnout from young people. In the 2017 election, a ‘youthquake’ did increase Labour’s vote.
Meanwhile, the Tories seem totally out of touch with young people:
Their dead contributors include Murdoch. Their demographic is dying. Their idea of youth is Rees Mogg or these creepy Spectator commentators who look like him. Farage is back for their racist vote. The scorched earth policy makes sense. This is their farewell tour.
— SirBucky McNally #DissolveTheUnion (@mcnally_bucky) August 22, 2018
In contrast, support for Corbyn among young people has grown organically – often powered through social media. In the 2017 election, Corbyn memes and hashtags like #seshthevote went viral. The #GrimeforCorbyn movement saw artists like Stormzy connect to empower young voters. Artist AJ Tracey spoke out about homelessness. JME met with Corbyn to explain “why bare of us don’t vote”.
And it hasn’t stopped.
Support for Corbyn is still surging across social media. And in August, as The Canary reported, over 18,000 people chanted “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” at a festival in Cornwall:
The chants of @UKLabour @jeremycorbyn were deafening last night at @boardmasters Festival where I DJed for @PropagandaClub & @SilentDiscoKing! It was the biggest Silent Disco ever in the world! 18k people! pic.twitter.com/nZHosP8Zbm
— DJ Dan (@DjDanPropaganda) August 10, 2018
So not only has Labour grown financially, but its membership is rising, and support from young people is strong.
This stands in clear contrast to May’s party. The Conservatives are a party in decline and, as each day passes, they look more like the walking dead.
Get Involved!
– Join The Canary, so we can keep holding the powerful to account.
Featured images via author’s own and Kuhlmann / MSC – Wikimedia
We need your help to keep speaking the truth
Every story that you have come to us with; each injustice you have asked us to investigate; every campaign we have fought; each of your unheard voices we amplified; we do this for you. We are making a difference on your behalf.
Our fight is your fight. You’ve supported our collective struggle every time you gave us a like; and every time you shared our work across social media. Now we need you to support us with a monthly donation.
We have published nearly 2,000 articles and over 50 films in 2021. And we want to do this and more in 2022 but we don’t have enough money to go on at this pace. So, if you value our work and want us to continue then please join us and be part of The Canary family.
In return, you get:
* Advert free reading experience
* Quarterly group video call with the Editor-in-Chief
* Behind the scenes monthly e-newsletter
* 20% discount in our shop
Almost all of our spending goes to the people who make The Canary’s content. So your contribution directly supports our writers and enables us to continue to do what we do: speaking truth, powered by you. We have weathered many attempts to shut us down and silence our vital opposition to an increasingly fascist government and right-wing mainstream media.
With your help we can continue:
* Holding political and state power to account
* Advocating for the people the system marginalises
* Being a media outlet that upholds the highest standards
* Campaigning on the issues others won’t
* Putting your lives central to everything we do
We are a drop of truth in an ocean of deceit. But we can’t do this without your support. So please, can you help us continue the fight?