Badenoch urged to apologise or face ‘action’ from Farage over Reform numbers row
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Nigel Farage has urged Kemi Badenoch to apologise or face “action” after she accused Reform UK of “fakery” over its membership numbers. The Reform UK leader will spend the weekend weighing up what action to take if Conservative leader Mrs Badenoch ignores his calls for an apology over the “crazy conspiracy theory”.
Mr Farage pushed back against reports suggesting that legal action would be the next step, as officials from both parties continued the row. The MP for Clacton also outlined his hopes that US billionaire Elon Musk could help attract younger voters to Reform as he “makes us cool”.
Tech entrepreneur Mr Musk met Mr Farage earlier this month at US President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, amid rumours of a possible donation to either Mr Farage or Reform. Tensions between Reform and the Conservatives escalated after Mrs Badenoch accused Mr Farage of “fakery” in response to Reform claiming they had surpassed the Tories in signed-up members.
Mrs Badenoch said Reform’s counter was “coded to tick up automatically”. 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, in a statement issued on Mr Musk’s social media site X, said the accusations of “fraud and dishonesty” made against him were “disgraceful”. He said Reform had opened up its systems to media outlets, including The Daily Telegraph and The Financial Times, in the “interests of full transparency to verify that our data is correct”.
