Farage’s Reform UK Party Says It Has More Members Than Tories
(Bloomberg) -- Membership for the populist Reform UK party has surpassed that of the Conservatives, according to the party led by Nigel Farage.
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A counter on the Reform website showed the party had more than 133,000 members on Thursday afternoon. There were 131,680 Tory members eligible to vote during the Conservative Party’s leadership contest this year that installed Kemi Badenoch at the helm of the party in November.
“This is a big, historic moment,” Farage said in an emailed statement. “Reform UK are now the real opposition.”
It wasn’t possible to independently verify the number provided by Reform or the latest Tory membership figures.
Reform has built a sense of momentum this year after it secured 14.3% of the national vote share during this year’s general election that saw the Conservatives ousted by the Labour Party, ending 14 years in power. Since then, the group has been buoyed by the stuttering start of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration as well as endorsements from the likes of Tesla Inc. chief and X owner Elon Musk.
Farage, who is now the bookmakers’ favorite to succeed Starmer as prime minister, this month met with Musk at US President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and touted a possible political donation. Funding from the world’s richest person would further upset the traditional two-party duopoly of British politics.
Badenoch earlier this week dismissed the threat of Farage securing party funding from Musk, saying it could be “counterproductive” with British voters.
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