Labour Loses 200,000 Members After Tax Rises Make £5 Membership Fee Unaffordable

The Labour Party has confirmed the loss of approximately 200,000 members over the past twelve months, with the most commonly cited reason being “I literally cannot afford to give you £5 a month because of the things you have done.”

The exodus, which party officials are describing as “a transition to a leaner, more focused membership base” and everyone else is describing as “people leaving,” has been driven overwhelmingly by the rising cost of living — a cost that, in a twist even the party”s own speechwriters could not have written, has been significantly increased by Labour”s own fiscal policies.

The Numbers

Internal data leaked to Pribber shows the scale of the departure:

• Peak membership (2024): Approximately 388,000
• Current membership (February 2026): Approximately 185,000
• Members who cited “can”t afford it” as their reason for leaving: 74%
• Members who specifically mentioned “your tax rises” in the exit survey: 61%
• Members who wrote “is this a joke” in the comments box: 38%

“I was a Labour member for nine years. I believed in the party. I canvassed in the rain. But after the National Insurance increase, the council tax rise, and whatever they did to my energy bill, I had to choose between the membership fee and a Tesco meal deal. The meal deal won.” — Former member, Bristol

The Meeting

An emergency meeting of the party”s National Executive Committee was convened to discuss the membership crisis. Minutes obtained by Pribber reveal the following exchange:

Chair: “We need to understand why members are leaving.”

Treasurer: “They say they can”t afford the fee.”

Chair: “Can we lower the fee?”

Treasurer: “We can”t afford to lower the fee. The party”s own costs have gone up. Because of inflation.”

Chair: “What”s driving the inflation?”

(Silence lasting eleven seconds.)

Treasurer: “Shall we move on?”

The Fee

The standard Labour membership fee is £4.92 per month — a figure that, as recently as 2024, was considered roughly equivalent to “a coffee and a flapjack” and therefore trivial. Following eighteen months of tax adjustments, benefit freezes, and energy price movements, the same £4.92 is now considered roughly equivalent to “a choice.”

One former member in Leeds told Pribber he had created a spreadsheet of monthly outgoings after his take-home pay fell by £140 following the latest fiscal event. “The Labour membership was line forty-seven,” he said. “It came below ”dog insurance” and above ”hope.” I cut both.”

The Party”s Response

A Labour spokesperson said the membership decline was “part of a natural electoral cycle” and “not reflective of any policy failure,” before being gently reminded by a colleague that the party had been in government for the entirety of the period in question.

The spokesperson then revised the statement to: “Membership numbers do not tell the full story. What matters is the strength of our movement, the clarity of our vision, and the — sorry, how many did you say had left?”

A separate initiative to attract new members with a discounted “solidarity rate” of £2 per month was quietly shelved after internal modelling showed that the people who would qualify for the discount were exactly the people the party”s policies had created.

The Irony Index

Political analysts have noted that the situation scores exceptionally high on what Westminster commentators are calling the “Irony Index” — a measure of how directly a party”s problems are caused by its own actions.

“This is a near-perfect score,” said Professor Helen Marsh of King”s College London. “The party raised taxes. The taxes reduced disposable income. The reduced income made the membership fee unaffordable. The members left. It is a policy ouroboros. It is eating itself, fiscally.”

She added: “The only way it could be more ironic is if the membership fee itself were subject to a new levy. Which, given current trajectory, I would not rule out.”

“We remain the party of working people. We just need working people to have slightly more money. Which is — yes, I can see the problem.” — Senior Labour source

What Happens Next

The party is reportedly considering several options to reverse the decline:

1. A “Pay What You Can” model, which internal polling suggests would yield an average contribution of 40p and a strongly worded letter.
2. A membership NFT, proposed by a junior adviser and rejected within four seconds.
3. Reducing taxes, proposed by no one.

Your correspondent is not a member of any political party, largely because the subscription model for British democracy starts at £4.92 and the content has not been updated since 2024.