Reform UK claims that after hitting 131,000 members on Boxing Day, it now has more members than the Conservatives.
The Conservatives had 131,680 members when Kemi Badenoch won the leadership contest in the fall, and the party claimed to have reached that milestone.
In a stunt to mark the moment, Reform projected a message on to Conservative party HQ in the middle of the night, telling Badenoch that Nigel Farage’s party was the “real opposition” to Labour.
Reform has been climbing in popularity since the general election, with opinion polls suggesting Farage has become one of the most popular politicians in the country since he was elected as an MP after many attempts.
He frequently scores highly on the proportion of people who have a favourable opinion of him, but also ranks highly on those with a negative opinion.
A recent Ipsos survey found that he had a higher net favourability rating than either Keir Starmer or Rachel Reeves.
The party is targeting an expansion of its elected base at next May’s council elections, with the aim of supplanting the Conservatives in many places.
“This is a big, historic moment,” Farage said of the membership numbers. “The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world. Reform UK are now the real opposition.”
The chair of Reform, Zia Yusuf, claimed Farage could be the next prime minister. “History has been made today, as the centuries-long stranglehold on the centre-right of British politics by the Tories has finally been broken,” he said.
Membership of mainstream political parties has been in decline for years, although Labour has sustained more members than the Conservatives in recent decades.
In the 1950s, there were about 2.8 million Conservative party and a million Labour party members. Labour had about 366,000 members earlier this year, while the Conservatives have fluctuated between about 130,000 and 170,000 in the last few years.
At its peak in 2015, Farage’s predecessor party, Ukip, had about 46,000 members, suggesting Reform now has more momentum.
A Conservative party spokesperson said: “Reform has delivered a Labour government that has cruelly cut winter fuel winter payments for 10 million pensioners, put the future of family farming and food security at risk, and launched a devastating raid on jobs, which will leave working people paying the price.
“A vote for Reform this coming May is a vote for a Labour council. Only the Conservatives can stop this.”
As well as his role as Reform leader, Farage has been talking up his potential to help the UK’s new ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, in his relations with the president-elect, Donald Trump, who is a political and personal friend.
Farage told the Daily Telegraph: “I am no fan of any of the people in the Labour party, but if it is in the national interest I have always thought I could be a useful asset if they want to use that. But if they don’t, more fool them.”
Mandelson has signalled that he could be open to Farage helping to build bridges with Trump’s administration.
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