Reform UK membership overtakes Tories - but Badenoch says numbers are 'fake'
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Reform UK now has more members than the Conservative Party and is "the real opposition" according to Nigel Farage, while Kemi Badenoch has called his numbers "fake". According to a digital counter on the party's website, Reform UK had gone past 131,690 members - the amount the Conservative Party declared before its leadership election in the autumn - just before midday on Boxing Day.
Mr Farage, party leader and MP for Clacton-on-Sea, hailed the "historic moment" and said 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.". But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused the party of issuing misleading figures: "Manipulating your own supporters at Xmas eh, Nigel?. It's not real. It's a fake... [the website has been] coded to tick up automatically.".
Posting on X, she added that the Tories had "gained thousands of new members since the leadership election". Reform UK also shared a video of the membership tracker being projected on to the Conservative Party headquarters in London overnight. Zia Yusuf, party chairman, also said "history has been made today" and that the Tories' "centuries-long stranglehold on the centre-right of British politics" has "finally been broken".
Nigel Farage could be leader of the opposition after the next election, Harriet Harman predicts. Tory peer and donor Lord Rami Ranger forfeits CBE. Tory co-chair accuses Elon Musk of trying to 'buy' Reform UK. Mr Farage hit back at Ms Badenoch, who strongly contested Reform UK's figures. He claimed to have proof and posted a screenshot of an online register reportedly showing 'active memberships'.
