The Decline of Party Membership - Cameron’s Collapse

 This article in The Spectator highlights a dramatic fall in the membership of the Conservative Party since David Cameron became leader in 2005.

According to figures obtained by Paul Goodman at the ConservativeHome website, the membership of the Conservative Party has fallen to 134,000. It seems that the party was somewhat reluctant to release the data and they are under no obligation to do so. But Goodman estimates that membership has fallen by about a half in the last 8 years. Other commentators speculate that the real membership number is even lower at around 100,000. This is a far cry from the 1960s-1980s when the Conservative Party had an active membership of measured in the millions.

In 2012 the House of Commons Library published some analysis of party membership which highlighted the long-term, steady decline in political party membership in the UK.

The report highlighted that:

"Membership of UK political parties has been in steep decline over recent decades. Only about one per cent of the electorate is currently a member of one of the main parties, compared with an estimated 3.8% in 1983. The UK has one of the lowest rates of party membership in Europe, but most Western European countries have also seen large falls in party membership over the past fifty years."