Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, has called for an apology from Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch over disputed claims about party membership numbers.
Farage announced on Thursday that Reform UK had surpassed the Conservatives in membership, describing the milestone as a “historic moment” and positioning his party as the “real opposition” in British politics. Reform UK’s membership tracker, displayed on its website, showed an increase to around 143,000 members, surpassing the Conservative Party’s last disclosed figure of 131,680 members in November.
Badenoch, who assumed leadership of the Conservative Party in November, rejected Farage’s claims, accusing the party of manipulating membership numbers. She stated that Reform’s “digital tracker” was “coded to tick up automatically,” branding Farage’s assertion as “fakery.”
In response, Farage dismissed the allegations as “disgraceful,” stating that Reform UK had opened its membership data to UK media outlets for verification. “I am now demanding Kemi Badenoch apologises,” Farage declared on social media platform X.
Despite Farage’s confidence, experts have raised doubts about the credibility of Reform UK’s membership claims. Sussex University politics professor Paul Webb highlighted the difficulty in confirming membership statistics, noting the lack of transparency in Reform’s procedures. “Membership likely means little more than making a financial donation to the party,” Webb said.
Reform UK, originally launched as the Brexit Party in 2018, has positioned itself as an anti-immigration and anti-establishment party. It garnered over 14% of the vote in the July general election but secured only five parliamentary seats due to Britain’s first-past-the-post electoral system.
While Badenoch continues to dismiss Farage’s claims, Reform UK’s membership tracker remains active, fueling ongoing debates over the party’s true influence in British politics.
