A furious war of words has broken out between Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch after Reform UK claimed its membership had overstepped its bounds. Tories.
A digital counter on the Reform website showed membership passed the 131,680 figure declared by the Conservative Party at its leadership election earlier this year before lunchtime on Boxing Day.
Reform leader Farage said it was a “historic moment”, adding: “The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world. Reform UK is now the real opposition.”
But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused the live membership sticker of being ‘fake’ in a series of posts on X.
Mrs Badenoch wrote: ‘Manipulating your own supporters at Christmas, eh Nigel?
“It’s not real. It’s a fake clock coded to tick automatically. We’ve been watching the back for days and can also see that they just changed the code to link to another site while people are using this indicate.
“Farage does not understand the digital age. This kind of counterfeiting is discovered quite quickly, although not before many are fooled…”
She added: “How can I be sure the reform announcement is not true? Because the Conservative Party has gained thousands of new members since the leadership election.
‘But we don’t shout about it… we build quietly and steadily on principles and values, not on gimmicks.
“The road ahead is long and difficult. But our first mission is to earn the trust of the British people – you don’t do that by manipulating them at Christmas.”
In response, Farage questioned the Tory membership numbers and accused Badenoch of being “bitter, upset and angry”.
He said: “Kemi says I don’t understand the digital age. I have 5.4 million followers and she has 320,000 followers.
“We understand that you are bitter, upset and angry that we are now the second largest party in British politics, and that the Conservative brand is dying under your leadership.
“However, this is no excuse to accuse us of fraud. We would be happy to invite any of the Big 4 firms to check our membership numbers, as long as you do the same.
“We have heard from many whistleblowers who will swear under sworn statements that ballots were mailed to long-term or resigned ex-members.
“It is an open secret at CCHQ that your membership numbers are fake.”
The rebel party projected the number overnight at the Conservative Campaign headquarters in London to mark the milestone.