Badenoch unlikely to apologise in Reform numbers row, suggests minister
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Kemi Badenoch is not likely to apologise after she accused Reform UK of publishing a “fake” membership count online, the shadow home secretary has suggested. Asked whether the Conservative leader will say sorry for a row about the ticker showing rising Reform membership, Chris Philp told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “I don’t think so.”.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage used rallies on Friday and Saturday to declare Ms Badenoch’s North West Essex seat a target area for his party at the next election. After Reform published a membership counter online, Ms Badenoch alleged on Boxing Day it was “a fake, coded to tick up automatically”.
Mr Philp said: “She obviously had information that she based her comments on. “You know the most important facts are, since the general election, there have been I think 175 council by-elections. We have won seven times more of those than Reform. “We’ve won about 50, they’ve only won I think seven. We’re winning seats from Labour, Labour are losing seats to us.”.
Sky News has reportedly verified the counter’s legitimacy. The shadow home secretary added: “I’m not going to offer an opinion one way or another because I haven’t seen the evidence.”. Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice told the same programme: “The thing about legal action is you have to prove harm. The truth is that Kemi Badenoch has helped us, so we’re sort-of thanking her.
“But what we’d like is an apology. I think Chris Philp has just confirmed we’re not going to get an apology, so instead, what Nigel announced yesterday is that we’re going to instead make her constituency a key target seat for Reform at the next general election.
