UNIONIST parties have refused to publish membership figures – despite past calls for “transparency” from their opponents.
Scottish Labour, the Scottish Conservatives and the Scottish LibDems all failed to say how many members they had when approached by The National.
A Scottish Tory spokesperson said: “The party does not publish membership figures.”
Scottish Labour and the Scottish LibDems failed to respond to an email from this paper.
The Scottish Greens said they had 7646 members as of Monday afternoon and it is understood Alba have in the region of 7000 members.
It comes after the SNP announced its membership numbers were up as of Monday morning. They claimed the party now had 74,889 members – up from the 72,186 reported at the beginning of March.
The party found itself at the centre of a transparency row during the leadership contest after its former head of communications quit claiming he had been given inaccurate data when trying to field questions from the media.
Michael Russell, the SNP’s president, said: “It is important that high standards of transparency are a part of going forward for the SNP and we hope that others can match up to them as they should.”
During the SNP leadership election, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie demanded her opponents demonstrated “real transparency and openness”.
The SNP have approved measures aimed at improving its transparency with a group within the party tasked with reviewing its internal structures.
