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Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party said its membership had overtaken the Conservatives for the first time, a sign of growing momentum for the populist upstart, which has just five MPs in Parliament.
reform had more than 132,000 members as of Thursday morning, according to the party’s live online tally, surpassing the 131,860 Tory members at the time Kemi Badenoch was elected opposition leader last month.
“This is a huge, historic moment,” Farage said on Thursday. “The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world. Reform UK is now the real opposition.”
A Brexit activist and now MP, Farage has sought to capitalize on the Tories’ worst defeat in history in July’s general election, claiming at a press conference this month that the “Tories brand is broken”.
The reform has gained ground in opinion polls since the general election, when it won five MPs with a 14 percent share of the vote. The poll average this month is 23 percent, not far off from the Tories at 25 percent and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Labor party at 26 percent.
Farage also received a boost from defections from the Tories and support from powerful figures such as tech billionaire Elon Musk, raising alarm among both the Conservatives and Labor, although the next British general election is not expected until 2029.
Farage has sought to strengthen Reform’s ground campaign particularly in areas where she has won support in previous elections, such as Essex, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Wales.
The party has said it wants to emulate the electoral tactics of the Liberal Democrats, which typically target a smaller number of seats in local and national elections, and refine its messages and policy platforms to voters in those regions.
Reform is trying to attract thousands of supporters willing to campaign and collect data for the party and run as councilors in next year’s local elections. The party hopes to win hundreds of council seats and at least one mayoral position in local elections in May.
A Conservative Party spokesman said on Thursday that “a vote for reform next May is a vote for a Labor council – only the Conservatives can stop it.”
The reform received a boost this month when Farage met Musk in the USA and said the tech billionaire was considering a major donation to his populist party.
A significant financial contribution could help change Reform’s fortunes and allow it to fund a huge expansion of its ground operations and advertising campaign to further expand its base.
Several Conservatives have defected to Reform in recent weeks, including former Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns and the husband of former home secretary Suella Braverman.
Former Tory donor Nick Candy also defected to the party earlier this month to become its treasurer and chief fundraiser. He pledged to donate at least £1 million of his own money.
The Labor Party has about 370,000 members, down from its peak of 564,500 in 2017 when a throng of people joined in support of then-leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The Liberal Democrats have around 80,000 members, the Greens around 50,000.
