Nigel Farage's Reform UK hits a huge milestone as the party's membership has soared to 150,000, making another giant leap towards breaking Britain’s two-party political system.
The populist party, which is setting its sights on sending Farage to No10 in 2029, confirmed on Boxing Day that its total membership has soared past the Conservative Party's - which stands at 131,680 as of November 2024.
Reform UK only had 40,000 members ahead of Farage’s comeback as leader in June 2024, with the Brexit stalwart's return handing the right-wing party an exponential growth rate of 300 per cent in just eight months.
The return of Farage gave Reform UK an almost immediate 25,000 boost, with the total membership figure hitting 75,000 in August 2024.
Reform UK only had 40,000 members ahead of Farage’s comeback as leader in June 2024
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Reacting to the milestone, Farage said: "We have just hit 150,000 members! That is 50,000 new members this month alone. Britain is Broken. Britain Needs Reform. Come and join us."
Joining in with the celebrations, Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf said: "Thank you so much to all of you! Real change is coming to Britain."
On Boxing Day, Reform overtook Kemi Badenoch's Conservative Party, with Farage realising the populist party had hit the milestone whilst on a hunt in the countryside.
"We've done it, we're through," Farage exclaimed. "How about that? The official opposition. It's going to be a long day."
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Reform UK chairman Zia YusufREUTERSConflict soon broke after Badenoch accused Farage of “manipulation” by ticking the tally up with “fake” numbers.
She wrote on social media: "Manipulating your own supporters at Xmas, Nigel? It’s not real. It’s a fake...coded to tick up automatically. We’ve been watching the back end for days and can also see they’ve just changed the code to link to a different site as people point this out.
"Farage doesn’t understand the digital age. This kind of fakery gets found out pretty quickly, although not before many are fooled...like many of you, I am sick of the endless lies, smoke and mirrors, stuff and nonsense politics. "
The Reform UK leader fired back: “I’m not going to take it lying down." He added: "It’s an absolutely outrageous thing for her to have said.
“I am asking Kemi Badenoch to apologise immediately for this intemperate outburst.”
Kemi Badenoch accused Farage of 'manipulation' by ticking the tally up with 'fake' numbers
PAFarage has said he will spend the weekend thinking about the legal action he could take if Badenoch refused to apologise.
Elon Musk has even waded in on the spat, putting a fact-check note on Badenoch's tweet which claimed Reform UK had faked their figures.
The note says: “This claim is false. It’s not a ‘fake ticker’ – the website code clearly shows data being pulled via an API.
“Sky News has independently verified the source of the API data and confirmed that the membership number is accurate.”
