“The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world."
That is the shocking, but true, statement issued by Nigel Farage (on X) as a digital counter on the Reform website showed its membership tally before lunchtime on Boxing Day ticking past the 131,680 figure declared by the Tories during their leadership election earlier this year.
Farage went to describe this as a "historic moment":
“Reform U.K. are now the real opposition.”
He also shared a video of him celebrating the news at a Boxing Day hunt yesterday morning.
As The Daily Mail reports, the result comes off the back of a successful year for Reform with the party claiming five seats in the General Election in July, including Mr. Farage taking Clacton.
The party also finished in second place in a whopping 98 seats and played a key role in splitting the Conservative vote.
Responding to the surge in membership numbers, Party chairman Zia Yusuf said:
“History has been made today, as the centuries-long stranglehold on the centre-right of British politics by the Tories has finally been broken.
“Nigel Farage will be the next prime minister, and will return Britain to greatness.”
There were 131,680 Conservative members eligible to vote during the party’s leadership election to replace Rishi Sunak in autumn.
The figure, revealed as Kemi Badenoch was announced leader on November 2nd, was the lowest Tory level on record and a drop from the 2022 leadership contest when there were around 172,000 members.
A Conservative Party spokesman said:
“Reform has delivered a Labour Government that has cruelly cut winter fuel winter payments for 10 million pensioners, put the future of family farming and food security at risk, and launched a devastating raid on jobs which will leave working people paying the price.
“A vote for Reform this coming May is a vote for a Labour council – only the Conservatives can stop this.”
Reform's overtake of the Conservative Party's membership numbers comes amid claims that Elon Musk is poised to donate $100 million to the party.
Mr Farage revealed that "money was discussed" in his meeting with Mr Musk, telling The Times: "We are in negotiations about whether he can help. He is fully behind this."