Nigel Farage has called on Kemi Badenoch to say sorry after the Conservative party leader accused him of inflating Reform membership numbers. ‘I am asking Kemi Badenoch to apologise immediately for this intemperate outburst,’ the Reform leader said. Badenoch has accused Farage of ‘fakery’ over the claim that Reform’s total membership overtook the Conservatives this week.
‘The Reform UK membership continues to rise rapidly,’ Farage said, ‘and we are delighted with the momentum. The accusations of fraud and dishonesty made against me yesterday were disgraceful, and we have opened up our systems to the Daily Telegraph, The Spectator, Sky News and the FT in the interests of full transparency.’
In a briefing to journalists, the Reform leader would not rule out legal action if Badenoch refuses to say sorry for the series of tweets she sent on Boxing Day. Farage said he would consider what step to take in the coming days:
‘I’m going to take some action in the next couple of days and I’m going to decide exactly what it is. But I’m certainly not going to take it lying down.’
The Spectator was shown the code on the front end of Reform’s online tally, the backend code, and how that code links to the third-party donation site built by Nationbuilder. The demonstration appeared to provide evidence that the online tally did correspond to members that had signed up to Reform. When it comes to any lingering doubts regarding their figures, Farage said he was open to an independent audit, even if the Conservatives do not follow suit:
‘I think genuine party memberships have always been a source of contention ever since I was about 4ft ’11, so us doing it as a matter of course on an annual basis sets a very high standard so the answer to that is an emphatic yes.’
A Conservative source said of Farage’s demand for an apology:
‘Farage is clearly rattled that his Boxing Day Publicity Stunt is facing serious questions over a fake clock and hundreds of ‘members’ seemingly joining in the middle of the night.’
As for what comes next, Reform sources say they will keep the live membership ticker on the website for the forseeable future. They will also be carrying out further work to establish where their new members are coming from. It is Farage’s view for now that the main chunk of new members have ‘never been in a political party in their life’:
‘Some will come from the Tories, but…what we are seeing from the branch meetings, when people go to the inaugural meetings, is that the vast majority of people that are joining have never been in a political party in their life. These are concerned citizens of all ages and all backgrounds who genuinely think we are in economic and societal decline, and unless we can find something inspiring to turn it around, this country will effectively be lost. We will be doing a much deeper survey to find out what the percentages are. But the vast majority have never been part of anything.’
Katy discusses Kemi Badenoch’s tenure so far as Tory leader on the latest Coffee House Shots podcast alongside Paul Goodman and Oscar Edmondson:
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