Reform UK claims more members than the Conservatives

Open Editor’s Digest for free

FT editor Rula Khalaf picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Nigel Farage’s Reform Britain Party has said its membership has overtaken the Conservatives for the first time in a sign of growing momentum in the populist upsurge, which has just five MPs in parliament.

Reform It had more than 132,000 members on Thursday morning, according to the party’s live online figures, surpassing the 131,860 Tory members had when Cammy Badenoch was elected opposition leader last month.

Farage he sought to capitalize on Labour’s general election defeat to the Tories in July and told a press conference this month that the Tories’ “brand is broken”.

“This is a big, historic moment,” Farage said on Thursday. “The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world. Reform Britain is now the real opposition.”

The reform won five MPs in the election and received a further boost in early December when Farage met Elon Musk in the US, where Farage said the tech billionaire had been considering the possibility of donating to the reform.

Farage has sought to strengthen the Reform grassroots campaign by expanding his membership in parts of the UK where he already has some support, including Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Wales.

The party has spoken of its plans to emulate the electoral tactics used by the Liberal Democrats, who typically target a smaller number of seats in local and national elections, honing their messages and political platforms to voters in those areas.

The reforms are trying to find thousands of supporters willing to collect and collect data for the party, as well as stand as councilors in next year’s local government elections.

The party hopes to win hundreds of council seats and at least one mayor in the May local government elections.