Nigel Farage threatens to take motion towards Tory chief in dispute over membership numbers

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Nigel Farage has stated he’s contemplating authorized motion towards Kemi Badenoch, demanding an apology from the Conservative chief for accusing him of falsifying Reform UK membership numbers.

“I am not going to remain nonetheless. That is a fully scandalous factor for him to do,” Farage stated on Friday. “I name on Kemi Badenoch to instantly apologize for this intemperate outburst.”

Talking on a Zoom name to reporters, he stated: “I’ll take motion within the coming days,” including that he was nonetheless deciding precisely what type that might take.

Reform Occasion chairman Zia Yusuf confirmed the Monetary Instances the code and knowledge behind the social gathering’s membership numbers on Friday, offering sturdy proof of the rely’s accuracy.

The Reform chief’s feedback adopted an accusation of Badenoch The Reform Occasion produced “false” figures on Thursday, after Farage claimed his social gathering’s membership had overtaken the Conservatives for the primary time.

In a submit on

“We have been monitoring the again finish for days and can even see that they simply modified the code to hyperlink to a different web site as a result of individuals are pointing it out,” she added.

It’s the first time Badenoch has attacked Farage and Reform, seen as one of many largest threats to the Conservative social gathering because it seeks to rebuild following its worst ever election defeat in July.

Yusuf job a ballot on X on Thursday, asking: “Ought to Nigel Farage sue Kemi Badenoch for defamation?”

Farage stated the Conservatives’ personal membership figures had been false and he had proof they included individuals who had resigned from the social gathering or died, as he renewed requires the Conservative social gathering to submits its workforce figures to an exterior audit.

The Reform chief stated he can be comfortable to have his social gathering’s membership numbers audited annually, whether or not or not the Conservatives comply with do the identical.

Badenoch “made a horrible mistake and he or she is totally incorrect about us,” Farage stated. “She’s going to discover life rather more tough and can bitterly remorse revealing this on Boxing Day afternoon.”

The row has drawn consideration to the truth that British political events are usually not required to publish their membership numbers and there’s no exterior physique to audit or confirm revealed figures.

Though most events publish their accounts of their annual accounts or on their web sites, the Conservatives don’t.

The Reform Occasion’s on-line membership monitoring system confirmed Friday that the social gathering had practically 142,500 members, in comparison with the Conservatives’ 131,680 on the time of their management election final month.

The FT obtained the code to calculate and show the Reform Occasion’s on-line tally, in addition to its dashboard created by NationBuilder, a third-party app the social gathering makes use of to handle memberships and donations.

The protest supplied sturdy proof that the net counter precisely matched the variety of members who had joined the Reform Occasion.

Growing its membership is a precedence for the Reform Occasion because it seeks to maneuver from start-up standing to a reputable political social gathering.

To efficiently marketing campaign on the bottom earlier than native elections in Could subsequent yr, Reformers will want 1000’s of supporters to knock on doorways to ballot voters and accumulate knowledge, in addition to to run as councilors in tons of of seats.

Farage stated on Friday he believed “the overwhelming majority” of individuals becoming a member of the Reform Occasion had “by no means been a part of a political social gathering of their lives”.

The Liberal Democrats and the Greens publish the variety of their members on their web site. The Liberal Democrats declare to have “greater than 90,000” members, whereas the Greens declare to have “greater than 59,000”.

The Labor Occasion stated it had round 370,000 members in March this yr.

An individual near Badenoch stated: “Faux Farage is clearly shaken that his Boxing Day publicity stunt is going through severe questions due to a faux clock and tons of of ‘members’ who look like becoming a member of in amid the night time.

“Like most traditional individuals within the UK, Kemi is having fun with Christmas together with her household and is wanting ahead to the problem of renewing the Conservative Occasion within the new yr,” they added.