In January 2022, Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves told the Financial Times how pleased she was to see declining levels of participation in the Labour Party:
Reeves said that a drop in Labour membership, which has reduced the party’s income, was a price worth paying for shedding unwelcome supporters and removing the “stain” of anti-Semitism from the party. “Membership in my constituency is falling and that’s a good thing,” she said. People had left “who should never have joined the Labour Party. They never shared our values,” she added.