SNP reveals membership boom at start of general election year

THE SNP has hailed a record-breaking year for membership despite opponents claiming that its fortunes had taken a turn for the worse in 2009.

• Alex Salmond has set a target of 20 seats at the general election

According to the party, it now has 15,644 members, up 4 per cent from a year ago and 65 per cent from 2003.

The figures buck the downward trend of political party membership, especially for major parties.

And the SNP says this puts it in a strong position as it and rivals gear up for two major electoral challenges in the next 500 days.

The general election for Westminster is due to be held this year, with commentators split over whether Gordon Brown will choose 25 March or 6 May. The latest it can take place is 3 June.

SNP leader Alex Salmond has set a target of 20 seats for the party to win in that election, in a bid to hold the balance of power in what may be a hung parliament.

However, recent polls suggest his party lags behind Labour in Westminster voting intentions and will fall far short of the target, only increasing its current crop of seven MPs by a few despite receiving many more votes.

But strategists hope that the decision by the pro-Union parties to block a referendum on independence will prove to be a strong electoral card.

From the general election, the parties in Scotland will be building for the Holyrood poll in May 2011. Recent surveys have also suggested the SNP may not be in as comfortable a position for that election as the party had hoped.

In some polls, Labour has sneaked ahead in Holyrood voting intentions for the first time since losing to the Nationalists in May 2007.

However, the SNP hopes an expected Tory government in Westminster, with few Conservative MPs from Scotland, will bolster support for independence.

The increased membership figures are being used as an argument that the appetite for independence is growing and the SNP is still in a strong position.

SNP business convener, MSP Bruce Crawford, said: "The fact that SNP membership has continued to rise this year by a further 4 per cent shows the sustained success and popularity of the SNP in government.

"The SNP is winning new members and public support as voters recognise the tangible improvements the party is making for people in Scotland. Our task now is to continue to grow this support towards the upcoming Westminster elections."

Scottish Labour had about 18,500 members last year, according to recent figures. The Scottish Conservatives never release membership figures but a spokesman claimed the Tories had "roughly the same number" as the Nationalists, about 15,000.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats are believed to have around 4,000 members in Scotland.

Politics expert Professor John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, said party membership had been falling since the 1950s:

He said: "There has been a long-term decline in memberships in the UK. All parties have relatively small memberships now, compared to what they used to have.

"The SNP's figure of 9,000 in 2003 was an incredibly small base. They have done well to grow it so successfully and have improved electoral popularity leads, unsurprisingly, to an increase in party membership figures."