Kemi Badenoch has accused Reform UK of faking its membership numbers after Nigel Farage claimed the party had overtaken the Conservatives on Boxing Day.
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.
Farage claimed his party were now the “real opposition” to Labour after announcing the results at a fox hunt, but Badenoch has called his numbers “fake”.
“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”, she posted, adding that the Tories had “gained thousands of new members since the leadership election”.
Farage hit back at Badenoch after she strongly contested Reform UK’s figures.
He claimed to have proof and posted a screenshot of an online register reportedly showing ‘active memberships’.
“We understand you are bitter, upset and angry that we are now the second biggest party in British politics, and that the Conservative brand is dying under your leadership. However, this not an excuse to accuse us of committing fraud,” he wrote on X.
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