A furious war of words has broken out between Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch after Reform UK claimed its membership had surpassed the Tories.
A digital counter on the Reform website showed a tally of members before lunchtime on Boxing Day ticking past the 131,680 figure declared by the Conservative Party during its leadership election earlier this year.
Reform leader Mr 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 are now the real opposition.”
But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused the live membership ticker of being “fake” in a series of posts on X.
Ms Badenoch wrote: “Manipulating your own supporters at Xmas eh, Nigel?
“It’s not real. It’s a fake clock 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…”
She added: “How do I know for certain 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 are building quietly and steadily on principles and values, not gimmicks.
“The road ahead is long and difficult. But our first mission is to win the trust of the British People – you don’t do that by manipulating them at Christmas.”
In response, Mr Farage questioned Tory membership numbers and accused Ms 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 320k.
“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. We will gladly invite one of the Big 4 firms in to audit our membership numbers as long as you do the same.
“We have heard from many whistleblowers that will swear under affidavits that ballots were sent out to long expired or resigned ex-members.
“It’s an open secret at CCHQ that your membership numbers are fake.”
The insurgent party projected the number onto Conservative Campaign Headquarters in London overnight to mark the milestone.
