Reform UK chair says party gained 46,000 members in last two weeks of December

More than 46,000 people joined Reform UK in the last two weeks of December, the party chairman told supporters amid a spat with the Tories over membership numbers.

Zia Yusuf asked party members at a Reform UK conference in Chelmsford, Essex – part of Kemi Badenoch’s North West Essex constituency – to give a “big Reform round of applause” to the Conservative leader.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Mrs Badenoch have been involved in a back-and-forth since Boxing Day over party member figures.

Mr Yusuf said Reform’s membership numbers had exploded since her “ill-advised outburst” and that he was “very grateful”.

He said more than 46,000 people had joined Reform UK in the last two weeks of December as it had become “the talk not just of the UK but of the western world”.

At a similar event in Leicester a day earlier, Mr Farage had promised “the gloves are off” in the next election bout against the Tories.

The MPs – who both represent areas of Essex – have rowed over Reform’s online membership counter, which Conservative leader Mrs Badenoch claimed on Boxing Day was a “fake, coded to tick up automatically”.

Mrs Badenoch won the North West Essex constituency in July with a 2,610 majority over Labour.

Several media outlets including The Spectator and Financial Times reported having been shown the code for calculating and displaying the online ticker, which they found appeared to function properly.

Mr Farage, the MP for Clacton, said in Leicester that Mrs Badenoch’s claims had boosted Reform UK membership rather than harming the party.

Mr Farage also said he was inviting all Reform UK members and supporters in North West Essex to a big venue to meet him on January 31 and take a photo together to show the opposition leader that the members are real.

He said he would also make Mrs Badenoch’s constituency a Reform UK target in the next general election.

“You had your chance,” he said.

“You accused me of being dishonest. You had your chance to apologise. Well now the gloves are off.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also faces challenges from Mr Farage, according to a new poll.

According to a seat-by-seat projection by Stonehaven, published in The i paper, Reform would win 120 Commons seats at the next election, while Labour would have 278 MPs left, down from 411 at the 2024 election.

Among Reform’s gains from Labour could be Dover and Deal in Kent and South West Norfolk, which Terry Jermy took from former Conservative prime minister Liz Truss last July.

But North West Essex would remain under Conservative control, according to the model.