THE SNP have confirmed a rise in the number of party members.
The party reports that as of Monday April 24, there are 74,889 members, an increase on the 72,186 reported at the beginning of March.
It comes after Keith Brown told The Sunday Show there had been an “uptick” in new members despite the high-profile investigation into the party’s finances.
We reported earlier this month that SNP politicians claimed membership numbers had increased in some parts of the country.
John Nicolson MP shared a Tweet to share an update from the Perthshire South and Kinross-shire SNP branch which said their numbers had gone up and said: “Great news from our patch. And hearing this a lot from elsewhere in the country too.”
The Scottish Greens meanwhile confirmed that they have 7646 members as of Monday April 24.
The SNP was previously forced to release membership figures in March following pressure from leadership candidates Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan.
It subsequently emerged that 30,000 members had left since 2021, with the figure dropping from 103,884 to 72,186.
Anyone got a link to Tory & Labour membership numbers in Scotland? https://t.co/F4tZAuQA3K
— Stephen Flynn MP (@StephenFlynnSNP) April 24, 2023
Speaking on Good Morning Scotland on Monday, prior to the release of the figures, the SNP’s leader in Westminster Stephen Flynn said: “I think given the fact that pretty much every aspect of the internal workings of the Scottish National Party have been discussed in recent weeks, I think it’s safe to say voters are fully aware of the challenges and successes we have.
“As I understand it, none of the other parties appear to publish their membership numbers.”
READ MORE: Stephen Flynn hits back at claim independence is on the 'back-burner'
He added that it “wasn’t good enough” that the membership figures weren’t published before they were eventually released during the leadership contest.
“Hopefully moving forward we can continue to publish our membership numbers on a regular basis and I would challenge all the other parties to do so.
“I guess they might be a little bit embarrassed and some of them might need a phone box to have their conferences in comparison to ourselves", Flynn added.
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