Conservatives' success story stalls - Telegraph
By Toby Helm and George Jones
Last Updated: 12:50AM GMT 27 Dec 2006
Conservative membership has stalled during most of 2006 and may even have fallen over the last nine months, party insiders said yesterday.
Although David Cameron saw 15,000 new members in the first weeks of his leadership, the momentum has not been maintained.
While he has attracted new members, particularly younger people and women, by projecting a softer, "caring" image, some traditional Tories have left, with prominent defections to the UK Independence Party (Ukip). Party sources said it was possible that overall membership had dropped below the 290,000 level calculated last January.
Ukip said last night its membership had risen from 16,000 to 17,000 since September, mainly due to disaffected Tories jumping ship.
<edit by C-Steam: only the above is verbatim from the telegraph link. The source of the reminder of the post, below, does not appear to be from the telegraph (I stand to be corrected)>
In December 2006 UKIP made a statement to the press claiming its membership had surged from 16,000 to 17,000 since September due to disaffected Conservatives jumping ship.
The figures UKIP provided to the Electoral Commission actually showed this to be a blatant lie and membership was only 16,000!
However by June 2007 membership had risen to 16,700 but dropped back to 15,900 in December 2007.
UKIP as a political party has stagnated and is in gradual decline. It appears to have surges of new members but doesnt appear to be able to retain them!