Bankrupt, Policies, Ideology, Money and Members: Starmer’s Labour loses nearly 100,000 members and makes a £5 million loss

If Starmer can’t run the Labour Party how can he be trusted with the economy?

The Labour party’s latest figures show the once great Labour Party is sinking faster than the Titanic and this time it really is the arrogant captain’s fault.

The Party’s income from membership fees has been cut and makes up the majority of the deficit

Labour 2021 newly published accounts show they lost nearly 100,000 members and ended the year with a £5m financial deficit.

The mass exodus of supporters saw the party’s membership – which stood at 523,332 at the end of 2020 – fall to 432,213 by the close of 2021.

Labour’s income from membership fees fell from £19.3m in 2020 to £16.2m in 2021, a £3.1m drop in income which made up the majority of its £5.2m deficit.

The size of the party’s loss represents a significant increase on 2020, when the party had a deficit of £1m. In 2019 the party had balanced the books, leaving a small surplus of £17,000.

Labour faced a series of industrial action votes being taken against them by their own staffers have it tried to push fire and rehire policy

The party Treasurers’ report describes 2021 as a “difficult and demanding year”, with staff redundancy packages to cut costs, in the long run, contributing to the financial black hole.

“The one-off cost of the voluntary severance scheme contributed to the deficit result which required the allocation of cash reserves to fund.”

Labour made a significant round of redundancies last year in a bid to cut costs. The party’s accounts show that in December 2020 it employed 424 staff, a figure which had fallen to 331 by the end of 2021.

Labour’s ideological move to the Right has so far resulted in a loss of up to 200 thousand members, a loss that the frontbencher, Rachel Reeves declared ‘ that is a good thing.’ That ‘good thing’, Reeves so arrogantly states has also brought about a Party close to bankruptcy.

That disquiet has escalated in recent months after the party leader explicitly repudiated 10 policy “pledges” he made during the 2019 leadership election – on subjects such as public ownership, EU policy, and supporting workers’ industrial action.

In July 2022 figures reportedly shown to the party’s national executive committee (NEC) suggested Labour had lost more members, with just 382,000 fully paid-up. These numbers are yet to be officially confirmed in the party’s accounts, however.

Sir Keir Starmer’s approach has also angered some trade unions. In February Sharon Graham, the leader of Labour’s biggest donor Unite, said “the remaining financial support of Labour Party is now under review” and that the party should “act like Labour, be the party for workers”.

Earlier this year a secret document obtained by The Electronic Intifada reveals that the UK Labour Party wasted £1 million pursuing the leakers of a report on alleged anti-Semitism.

The Labour Leaks and Forde report are public interest stories that affect our very democracy, the act of suppressing and hiding the truth behind a legal wall that only serves the perpetrators of Labour’s betrayal does not bode well for a potential Labour Party government, especially one led by an authoritarian Barrister and former Director of public prosecution.

Asa Winstanley an investigative journalist and associate editor with The Electronic Intifada exclusive shows the extent the Labour Party and Sir Keir Starmer have gone to in their pursuit to hide the truth, Labour staffers sabotaged their own party.

It also angered both Unite the union and many Labour members when Starmer went against legal advice and paid an out-of-court six-figure settlement to former staffers in case Labour lawyers said they could win.

The settlement and formal apologies to both the reporter, John Ware, and the ex-employees, which have been read in open court, are believed to have cost the Labour party around £600,000, with about £180,000 in damages agreed for the eight individuals.

It has been pointed out that Labour has polled consistently ahead of the Tories since last year, however, the reality on that polling is unlikely to ever manifest itself into votes, In reality, other poling shows Starmer to be extremely unpopular Labours poling has come about not through policy deeds or action but simply because the government has been laid low by a series of sleaze scandals and a perceived lack of action on the cost of living crisis.

The majority of these staffers were the same staffers mentioned in the Labour leaks and the Forde report.

What for some is very clear is the fact that if Starmer can not keep the Labour Party in the black how on earth can he run the economy?

A Labour spokesperson said: “Thanks to Keir Starmer’s firm leadership and clear commitment to taking Labour back into power, the party is on track to returning to a firm financial footing – with commercial income and donations rising significantly.”

Labour now seem in deficit of ideas policy, members and money, if the Party’s a ship and Starmer the captain he has clearly run it into the rocks.

The Conservative party, whose accounts were also published today, made a £319,000 surplus in 2021.