On Saturday 25 October, the Labour Party elected Lucy Powell to be their new deputy leader. Powell was the front runner, so the result came as no surprise. What did come as a shock was — just how few people voted:
161,000 votes cast in the Labour Deputy Leadership Election.
It was 461,000 votes cast in the same contest in 2020.
A 300,000 collapse in the number of people voting in the Labour Deputy Leadership Election.
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) October 25, 2025
Because Labour hasn’t released membership figures beyond the end of 2024, it’s unclear if this is the result of members leaving or members simply giving up.
Labour Deputy Leadership: Powell versus Phillipson
The final vote was as follows:
- Bridget Phillipson – 75,356 votes (46% of votes cast).
- Lucy Powell – 87,407 votes (54% of votes cast).
Those who were eligible to vote included Labour members and union affiliates, which includes 970,642 people in total. This means only 16.6% of those who could vote did so.
While we don’t know what percentage of those who voted were members or affiliates, we do know membership has crashed under Starmer. As reported by the BBC in August, the party has lost almost 200,000 members since its 2019 peak. The figures released by Labour were that the party has 333,235 members, meaning it’s still the largest party in the UK. The problem is these figures only went as far as the end of 2024, and Labour’s approval ratings have steadily dropped since then:
🚨 NEW | Labour approval hits record low (-61)
✅ Approve – 11% (-1)
❌ Disapprove – 72% (+3)Via @YouGov, 15 Sep (+/- vs 8 Sep) pic.twitter.com/1IfMsrOdjR
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) September 16, 2025
How has this affected Labour Party membership? We have no idea, because Labour won’t tell us.
The Green Party, meanwhile, has been incredibly transparent on what’s happening with their membership:
In 2024, the Greens raised £2.1 million from member subscriptions. The Zack surge (doubling membership) means the party will have an extra ~£2 million added to its warchest ahead of crucial elections in Wales and London in 2026. Huge stuff
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) October 19, 2025
A referendum on Starmerism?
While Lucy Powell and Bridget Phillipson have almost identical voting records, it’s also the case that Powell was presented as the ‘anti-Starmer’ choice:
🌹Mainstream’s Interim Council sends its congratulations to @LucyMPowell, whom we endorsed after a ballot of our members.
This result must mark a shift toward a broader, bolder politics within Labour – so that we can build a democratic socialist programme to inspire the country. pic.twitter.com/XP7ONgoZUa
— Mainstream (@mainstreamlbr) October 25, 2025
She’s also followed through on this since being elected:
Lucy Powell immediately has a pop at Starmer’s “command and control” and “trying to out-Reform Reform”.
— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) October 25, 2025
Given that one of the two candidates promised a change to the much-hated status quo, you would have expected many more members to come out and show their dissatisfaction by voting for Powell. The fact that this hasn’t happened suggests the members who oppose Starmer’s failings have already left the party.
A dying party
All things considered, it seems likely the voter turnout dropped because membership has continued to nosedive. We know the party is down at least 200,000 members. Given that voter turnout in this leadership contest dropped by 300,000, we wouldn’t be surprised to discover Labour has lost another 100,000 since January. This would make Reform the largest party in the country with the Greens fast approaching from the rear.
Regardless of whether it’s falling membership or waning interest, however, one thing is clear, Labour is a dying party under Keir Starmer.
Featured image via BBC
