In response, Farage said he would allow one of the “Big Four” accountancy firms to audit Reform’s membership — if the Conservatives did the same. He said he had been contacted by “many Tory whistleblowers” saying that during the leadership contest ballots were sent to long-expired or resigned members. The Conservatives have not responded to the challenge.
The upstart Reform UK party caused serious damage to the Conservatives at the summer election, winning 4 million votes and five members of parliament. It now has the governing Labour Party in its sight, with one poll this month putting Farage’s outfit ahead of Keir Starmer’s party.
The war of words between Reform and the Tories began when a flat cap-sporting Farage attended a traditional “Boxing Day” fox hunt Thursday morning, where he invited his favorite GB News TV channel to hear him gloat about the “historic moment” his party overtook the Conservatives.
He said 15,000 members had stumped up £25 to join the party in the previous four days, as Reform deployed a video of its ticker being projected onto Conservative HQ, turning the street the party’s color turquoise and blaring: “Merry Christmas, Kemi!”
In response, Badenoch cast doubt on the accuracy of the figures, saying: “We’ve been watching the back end for days and can also see they’ve just changed the code to link to a different site … Farage doesn’t understand the digital age. This kind of fakery gets found out pretty quickly, although not before many are fooled.”
Farage shot back on X, saying: “We understand you are bitter, upset and angry that we are now the second biggest party in British politics, and that the Conservative brand is dying under your leadership. However, this [is] not an excuse to accuse us of committing fraud.”