The Tories drop to third biggest membership of the British political parties

The SNP is now the second-best supported party in Britain

Analysis by the House of Commons Libary has indicated that the SNP have overtaken the Conservatives to become the second-best supported British political party.

As of last month, the Scottish National Party is thought to have just short of 125,500 members, with the Tories believed to have around 124,000 members as of March this year. The research indicates that Labour now has far and away the most members, with the total standing at 540,000, following a balloon in sign-ups after Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader in 2015.

But it is not just Labour growing their numbers, SNP membership rose from 118,162 in April 2018 to 125,482 in August, according to the party.

Meanwhile, the Conservative party continues to struggle with ageing and declining membership as it fails to reach potential party members digitally. Estimates of the average age of a Tory member this year have ranged from 57 to 71, with its total party members standing much lower than it is estimated to have a decade ago.


Of the remaining parties, the Lib Dems are thought to have around 99,200 members, the Greens 39,400 and UKIP just 23,600.

The news comes after the annual accounts of the political parties were released last month, those accounts revealed that the Tories made more money from donations left in wills as it did from membership fees in 2017. The Labour party now makes 19 times more money from its members than the Conservatives.