Greens finally admit a thousand members have not paid up

The Green Party have finally admitted that their numbers are a bit squiffy. No, not their bonkers universal minimum income plans, rather their artificially inflated membership data. Mr S has been digging around these figures since the Green leader Natalie Bennett boasted their membership had hit 52,000, yet he was assured – on the record – that everything was above board. Now Bennett has admitted in an interview that over a thousand members of ‘The Green Surge’ have not actually paid up.

Speaking to Fubar Radio‘s Tom Latchem, the antipodean revolutionary said:

‘The way membership works is that people can pay for 12 months and then you’re allowed, if you’ve not paid, a six-month grace period after that – that’s usually about two per cent of members. Given that two thirds have joined within the last three or four months that will be even lower. There’s a small percentage who are in grace but most of those do actually pay up.