LABOUR PARTY FUNDS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4807, 7 July 1939, Page 7

LABOUR PARTY FUNDS

SHORTAGE IN BRITAIN. MEMBERSHIP 2U MILLIONS. Labour Party finances are in an unhappy state, says the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post. In a report presented to the annual conference at Southport it was shown that 1938 closed with a deficit of £4305 on the general fund and £1740 on the by-election insurance fund — a total deficit of £6045. The National Executive Committee asked the conference to agree to an increase in the affiliation fee, which at present stands at 4%d, by stages, to 6d per member.

The committee recommended that the fee per head should be increased (1) By one farthing for the halfyear starting July 1, 1939 (equivalent to a halfpenny, making a total of 5d on a full year); and (2) By a further penny, making 6d, in the year starting January 1, 1940. The sixpence would include all premiums payable under the by-election fund which would otherwise become due in January, 1940, or later.

It is estimated that on the present membership the extra halfpenny would bring in an additional £SOOO a year, and the increase to sixpence less the income which the National Executive Committee derives at present from .the by-election insurance fund, would bring in, approximately, another £4OOO.

The executive described the financial position of the party during the last few years as one of "increasing seriousness." The total income during 1938, exclusive of receipts from literature sales, amounted to £49,102, of which £48,657 came from affiliation fees—£39,497 from the trade unions.

The total membership of the party at the end of the year is shown as 2,642,618; individual membership, men 250,705, women 178,121: trade union membership, 2,170,408; Socialist and Co-operative Societies' membership, 43,384. This total shows a slight increase over the year before, but in 1920 the membership was 4,359,807, which is 1,717,189 more than at the end of 1938.