Reform claims to be largest UK political party amid reports of Labour slide

Reform UK claims to have become the largest political party in Britain amid reports that leaked figures show a decrease in Labour’s membership.

Internal figures seen by the Times newspaper reportedly show Labour’s paid-up membership has fallen below 250,000.

Nigel Farage’s party claims it has more than 268,700 members via a “live tracker” on its website.

Reform’s official membership numbers do not however feature in their latest annual accounts, published on the Electoral Commission website in August.

Mr Farage said: “As we have suspected for some time, Reform has overtaken Labour to become the largest political party in British politics — a huge milestone on our journey to win the next election.

“The age of two-party politics is dead.”

Labour does not keep a running tally of its membership figures, instead opting to publish them each year as part of its annual reporting.

However, its numbers have fallen over consecutive years from a high of more than 500,000 members under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

Labour Party accounts published in August gave an illustration of the falling membership, revealing that in the year to December 2024 Labour had 333,235 members, down from 370,450 at the end of 2023.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Our membership figures are published in our annual report. We do not give a running a commentary on them throughout the year.”

The apparent rising number of membership contributions for Reform will likely boost its electoral war chest alongside a recent spate of donations.

The party received a £9 million donation in August from businessman Christopher Harborne, Electoral Commission records recently revealed.

The sum was the biggest single donation in modern history to a political party from a living person.

When the donation came to light, Mr Farage insisted Mr Harborne wants “nothing in return” for his donation to Reform UK, and insisted he was “very, very comfortable and confident” in the source of the cash.

Reform is not the only political party to have gained large numbers of new members during an era in which voters appear dissatisfied with the traditional political parties.

The Greens have increased their membership from around 70,000 to more than 180,000 since the party’s new leader Zack Polanski was elected in September.

The number of Conservative Party members has dwindled in recent years, currently standing at around 123,000.