More Scots Join SNP in a Week Than Scottish Labour’s Total Membership

The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) has nearly doubled its membership since its independence campaign ended in a narrow defeat last Thursday, overtaking the Lib Dems as the third largest UK political party.

Since last Thursday's vote the party has gained 22,104 new members, taking its total membership to 47,746. The SNP now have more members than the Liberal Democrats’ entire UK-wide membership of 43,451 according to their own estimates. 

The surge in support for the SNP also means more Scots have joined the nationalist party in thje last five days than the total number of Scottish Labour Party members according to their most up-to-date figures (13,135 in 2010).

A Labour Party spokesman said that Scottish membership had increased “by the hundreds” during the referendum campaign, but declined to give full up-to-date membership figures.

Scottish Labour’s Twitter bio claims it is Scotland’s largest political party, despite having 40,000 fewer followers than the SNP’s, which also lays claim to the title of the largest party.

Meanwhile, as the Labour Party conference entered its second day on Tuesday, disillusioned Scottish Labour and Liberal Democrat voters have been taking to Twitter, renouncing their former parties and embracing the SNP.

One user echoed a tweet posted by many Scots over the last two days, writing:

As a member of labour for all my adult life, I am proud to say I'm now with the SNP #indyref

— James Traynor (@JimTranor) September 21, 2014

Another user joked about Scottish Labour’s reluctance to publish their own membership figures:

Scottish Greens and SNP claiming large numbers of new members. Labour, Liberals and Tories... silent. Perhaps too shy to boast

— Andy Carling (@quarsan) September 22, 2014

The social media campaign which saw the SNP-backed Yes campaign earn the support of 45% of Scots, now fuels a social protest movement, which has gathered momentum over the last four days and aims to oust mainstream Westminster parties from Scotland.

Yes badges on profile pictures have been replaced by ones signifying the 45% of Scots who voted for independence, as the Facebook page “We are the 45%” has amassed more than 164,000 likes since it was created on Thursday.

One of the biggest emergent groups for independence since the negative result in the referendum, the Butterfly Movement, called for Scots “to ignore that Westminster even exists” on Monday.

“We dreamed ourselves free, we each felt the beauty of that freedom, and now we must make it a lived reality,” a statement on the group’s website read.