£4.6m in just 48 hours: The mind-boggling numbers behind Labour’s leadership election
The Labour party has completed a mind-boggling fundraising drive in the last 48 hours by asking supporters to contribute £25 to vote in its upcoming leadership election.
The party estimates that roughly 183,000 people signed up to vote in the last 48 hours, with each paying £25 a pop.
It equates to a cash injection of £4.6m for Labour raised in just two days.
By contrast, the party took in £5.5m in donations across all of the first three months of the year, while the Conservatives raised £6.7m.
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The number of people signing up to join the vote in the party's leadership election as £25 registered supporters is more than the entire membership of the Conservatives (150,000), and more than double that of the Lib Dems (76,000).
In addition to the 183,000 new members, the final verdict on Labour's leadership will be given by a party members who signed up before January, estimated at 388,407 by the Guardian.
Also weighing in will be the party's 230 MPs, while 71,546 union affiliated supporters also voted in the 2015 leadership election that propelled Corbyn to power.
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If the same numbers turn out this year, it means that the selection of Labour's new leader could be decided by more than 643,000 voters.
In itself, this is a huge leap from the 422,664 that voted in the party's last leadership election.
But more than that, it means that a population the size of Glasgow could select the new leader of the opposition.