Reform membership surpasses Conservatives, Nigel Farage claims
26 December 2024, 12:34 | Updated: 26 December 2024, 17:14
Membership of Reform UK has surpassed that of the Conservatives, Nigel Farage's party has said.
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A digital counter on the Reform website showed a membership tally before lunchtime on Boxing Day ticking past the 131,680 figure declared by the Conservative Party during its leadership election earlier this year.
Mr Farage said it was a "historic moment" as he posted on X: "The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world.
"Reform UK are now the real opposition."
Merry Christmas @KemiBadenoch. pic.twitter.com/XtuHgwhQ4W
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) December 26, 2024
Party chairman Zia Yusuf said: "History has been made today, as the centuries-long stranglehold on the centre-right of British politics by the Tories has finally been broken.
"Nigel Farage will be the next prime minister, and will return Britain to greatness."
There were 131,680 Conservative members eligible to vote during the party's leadership election to replace Rishi Sunak in the autumn.
The figure, revealed as Kemi Badenoch was announced leader on November 2, was the lowest Tory level on record and a drop from the 2022 leadership contest when there were around 172,000 members.
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Reform returned five MPs to the Commons at the general election in July, including Mr Farage in Clacton.
However Ms Badenoch has cast doubt on Reform's membership figures, accusing the party of creating a "fake" counter "coded to tick up automatically."
She said she was "sick" of what she called the "endless lies, smoke and mirrors and nonsense politics."
Manipulating your own supporters at Xmas eh, Nigel?
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) December 26, 2024
It’s not real. It’s a fake ⏰ coded to tick up automatically. We’ve been watching the back end for days and can also see they’ve just changed the code to link to a different site as people point this out.
Farage doesn’t… https://t.co/2tAsszfHsG
In response, Mr Farage said Ms Badenoch was "bitter, upset and angry" about the growth in Reform's support but that wasn't an "excuse" to accuse them of "committing fraud".
He added the party would "gladly invite one of the Big 4 firms in to audit our membership numbers" providing the Tories did the same.
