Membership of Reform UK has surpassed that of the Conservatives, Nigel Farage’s party has claimed, making it the second-largest political party in the UK.
A digital counter on the Reform website showed a membership tally before lunchtime on Boxing Day ticking past the 131,680 figure declared by the Conservative Party during its leadership election earlier this year.
Mr Farage said it was a “historic moment”, as he posted on X/Twitter: “The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world.
“Reform UK are now the real opposition.”
Party chair Zia Yusuf claimed that Mr Farage “will be the next prime minister, and will return Britain to greatness”, adding: “History has been made today, as the centuries-long stranglehold on the centre-right of British politics by the Tories has finally been broken.”
Before Mr Farage took over as leader of the party in June, Reform UK only had 40,000 members.
The party, which has been on a push to boost its membership in recent weeks, has seen a number of significant Conservative defections to its ranks, including former Tory minister Andrea Jenkyns and the founder of the Conservative Home website Tim Montgomerie.
There have also been growing rumours that tech billionaire Elon Musk is considering donating tens of millions of dollars to Reform UK after Mr Farage met with him at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion alongside the party’s new treasurer, Nick Candy.
Mr Farage has repeatedly insisted he knows nothing about a potential contribution to Reform from Mr Musk, but said that the party would take the money if it were offered.
Mr Musk is reported to have spent more than $250m (£197m) in his campaign to re-elect Mr Trump. Mr Farage has been criticised for travelling to the US on a number of occasions since his election as the new MP for Clacton in July.
During the Tory leadership race over the summer, which saw Kemi Badenoch elected to replace Rishi Sunak, there were 131,680 Conservative members eligible to vote.
The figure, revealed as Ms Badenoch was announced as the new Tory leader on 2 November, was the lowest on record and marked a drop from the 2022 leadership contest when there were around 172,000 members.
It comes after the party suffered a historic election defeat in July, which saw its Commons contingent reduced to just 121 MPs – the fewest in its history. Labour’s membership stood at around 370,000 in August.
Reform UK returned five MPs to the Commons at the general election after securing 4 million votes.
A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “Reform has delivered a Labour government that has cruelly cut winter fuel 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.”
