UK

Badenoch urged to apologise or face ‘action’ from Farage over Reform numbers row

Reform UK’s Nigel Farage says he will spend the next couple of days weighing up possible action against Kemi Badenoch.

Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage has said he is considering taking action
Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage has said he is considering taking action (Ben Birchall/PA)
By Richard Wheeler and Christopher McKeon, PA Political Staff

Nigel Farage has urged Kemi Badenoch to apologise or face “action” after she accused Reform UK of “fakery” over its membership numbers.

The Reform UK leader will spend the weekend weighing up what action to take if Conservative leader Mrs Badenoch ignores his calls for an apology over the “crazy conspiracy theory”.

Mr Farage pushed back against reports suggesting that legal action would be the next step, as officials from both parties continued the row.

The MP for Clacton also outlined his hopes that US billionaire Elon Musk could help attract younger voters to Reform as he “makes us cool”.

Tech entrepreneur Mr Musk met Mr Farage earlier this month at US President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, amid rumours of a possible donation to either Mr Farage or Reform.

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Tensions between Reform and the Conservatives escalated after Mrs Badenoch accused Mr Farage of “fakery” in response to Reform claiming they had surpassed the Tories in signed-up members.

Mrs Badenoch said Reform’s counter was “coded to tick up automatically”.

A digital counter on the Reform website showed a membership tally before lunchtime on Boxing Day ticking past the 131,680 figure declared by the Conservative Party during its leadership election earlier this year.

Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch
Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch (Lucy North/PA)

Mr Farage, in a statement issued on Mr Musk’s social media site X, said the accusations of “fraud and dishonesty” made against him were “disgraceful”.

He said Reform had opened up its systems to media outlets, including The Daily Telegraph and The Financial Times, in the “interests of full transparency to verify that our data is correct”.

He added: “I am now demanding Kemi Badenoch apologises.”

Mr Farage, on whether he was threatening legal action or not, told the PA news agency: “I haven’t threatened anything. I’ve just said that unless I get an apology, I will take some action.

“I haven’t said whether it’s legal or anything.”

He added: “All I’ve said is I want an apology. If I don’t get an apology, I will take action.

“I will decide in the next couple of days what that is. So I’ve not specified what it is.”

Mr Farage went on: “She (Mrs Badenoch) has put out this crazy conspiracy theory and she needs to apologise.”

On why Mrs Badenoch had reacted as she did, Mr Farage said: “I would imagine she was at home without anybody advising her and was just angry.”

On Saturday, Reform deputy leader Richard Tice appeared to push back further against suggestions of legal action, saying he hoped Mrs Badenoch would “do the right thing” and apologise.

He added: “Otherwise I suspect she’ll have 120 Tory MPs behind her aghast at her misstep during this festive season.”

But Mr Tice also conceded that not every Reform member was necessarily entitled to vote in the UK, saying there was a difference between being joining a political party and being eligible to vote.

A Conservative Party source claimed Mr Farage was “rattled” that his Boxing Day “publicity stunt is facing serious questions”.

They added: “Like most normal people around the UK, Kemi is enjoying Christmas with her family and looking forward to taking on the challenges of renewing the Conservative Party in the New Year.”

Mrs Badenoch, in a series of messages posted on X on Boxing Day, said: “Farage doesn’t understand the digital age. This kind of fakery gets found out pretty quickly, although not before many are fooled.”

There were 131,680 Conservative members eligible to vote during the party’s leadership election to replace Rishi Sunak in the autumn.

Mrs Badenoch claimed in her thread that “the Conservative Party has gained thousands of new members since the leadership election”.

Elsewhere, Mr Farage used an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper to describe Mr Musk as a “bloody hero”.

He said: “The shades, the bomber jacket, the whole vibe. Elon makes us cool – Elon is a huge help to us with the young generation, and that will be the case going on and, frankly, that’s only just starting.

“Reform only wins the next election if it gets the youth vote. The youth vote is the key.”