MEMBERSHIP of political parties in Ryedale has increased significantly since the EU referendum.

Local parties in the Thirsk & Malton constituency have reported increases of more than 20 per cent since June 23, when Britain voted to leave the European Union.

A spokesman for the local Conservative party said: "We've had a big increase in numbers since the referendum, and particularly the weekend after the Brexit vote - we had the bulk of them then."

She said the number of people in the party had risen to about 620, an increase of 90 members since the referendum, following a similar surge after the general election last year.

Aside from Brexit, she said a possible reason was people joining in the wake of David Cameron stepping down as party leader and Prime Minister.

The Labour Party, which is now the largest political party nationally, has also seen increases as the party enters a leadership election. At a recent meeting, Geoff Randall, the party’s membership secretary, announced that membership in the constituency now stood at 630 members with 91 of those being youth members. One hundred and 38 have joined since the EU referendum.

A spokesman for Labour said that Mr Randall had concluded from talking to new members that many joined to support Jeremy Corbyn, who is due to fight for his leadership over the coming months. They added that Corbyn seems to have "solid support" among Labour members.

A spokesman for UKIP, the third largest party in the most recent general election, said they did not have exact figures but added: "Since the Brexit vote we have had an increase in membership, with people applying to join our branch both through head office and directly through our own branch."

The Liberal Democrats, who came fourth in the 2015 election, also said they have had a constituency increase though again did not offer a figure.

A spokesman said: "The national picture is we’ve had more than 17,500 new members since June 23. This means that our overall membership figure stands at more than 76,000 members. This is the party’s highest membership figure this century."