MOMENTUM, the grassroots movement set up to support Jeremy Corbyn, now has 40,000 members, overtaking the membership of the Green Party.
The organisation published figures to show how it had grown by 6,000 members in the last three months alone and explained how it is now growing by an average of more than 1,700 new members a month. The Greens currently have a membership of around 39,000.
Momentum said if its current rate of membership growth continued, it would overtake the Conservative Party membership by the next General Election in June 2022.
It is thought Tory membership is now well below 100,000 and could be as low as 70,000, the Liberal Democrats have around 100,000 members while the SNP is thought to have around 110,000 members.
Labour, meanwhile, has more than 500,000 members, making it one of the largest political parties in Europe.
Momentum was established in 2015 to support the values of Mr Corbyn’s left-wing leadership of the Labour Party. In recent times, it has increased its influence on the party. Its founder, Jon Lansman, recently won a seat on Labour's ruling National Executive Committee.
The left-wing organisation also pointed out that 95 per cent of its funding came from membership fees and small donations with the average membership subscription only £3 per month.
Momentum said it would mobilise its 40,000 members to campaign for Labour in the upcoming local elections in England, targeting marginal councils from Trafford and Milton Keynes to Plymouth and Kensington and Chelsea.
As well as holding its so-called “Unseat events” in marginal councils, the group will launch digital tools and experiment with new organising techniques.
Laura Parker, Momentum’s National Co-ordinator, said: "With over 6,000 people joining our movement in the last three months alone, it’s clear the drive to get a socialist Labour Party elected and transform the country from the bottom up isn’t waning since the General Election last year.
“Our focus now is on mobilising our 40,000 members to canvass for Labour in the council elections in May and developing the digital tools needed to facilitate mass-scale campaigning," she added.
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