Reform UK membership tops 200,000 as Farage sets goal to ‘overtake’ Labour
speaking during the Reform UK Wiltshire conference – Photo Ben Birchall/PA Wire
Reform UK has more than 200,000 members, leader Nigel Farage announced, as he set out the party’s next goal to overtake the membership of the Labour Party.
The Clacton MP called his party’s growth “truly extraordinary” at a Reform UK regional conference event in Wiltshire.
He held up a placard saying “200,000 members”.
Goal
He then pointed to a screen displaying the party’s live membership ticker on their website and said the message would change when he came off stage.
“That message will say, as I leave this stage, it’ll change, and it will say that the Labour Party have 309,000 members, and when we overtake them, we will be the biggest political party in this country.
“That’s our goal. That’s our aim. That’s our target,” he said.
Reform UK unveiled the membership counter late last year.
On Boxing Day, Mr Farage called it a “historic moment” when it ticked past the 131,680 figure declared by the Conservative Party during its latest leadership election.
He has now set his sights on topping Labour’s membership.
Membership figures are difficult to compare as parties are not obligated to publish them and there is no uniform definition of membership and no established way or body to monitor it.
Labour
The Labour List website reported this week that the Labour Party’s paid-up members currently number around 309,000, which it said was down from around 348,500 in July last year.
The Labour Party’s last membership figure published in its Electoral Commission accounts was around 370,000 at the end of 2023.
The Labour Party has been approached for comment.
The Conservative Party revealed in November that 131,680 Conservative members were eligible to vote during the party’s leadership election to replace Rishi Sunak in the autumn.
This was the lowest Tory level on record and a drop from the 2022 leadership contest when there were around 172,000 members.
Reform UK has rejected the possibility of doing a pact with the Conservative Party or former prime minister Boris Johnson in response to reports of potential talks to form a “mega party”.
“There are absolutely no circumstances in which Reform would ever do a pact with Boris Johnson or the Conservative Party,” chairman Zia Yusuf said at the Wiltshire conference, reading out a statement also posted online.
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Last week Ashfield Labour Councillor Cathy Mason defected to Reform. Llanelli as a similar post industrial town had 11,247 voters back Farage last year. Where is this all going?
The presenters’ name escapes me now but I saw a show tonight making comparisons between leaders whose success was achieved by spreading brain boiling disinformation backed up by brutality with their adoring audiences eating out of their hands and being played like a Stradivarius. The ‘cast’ included Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Kim Jong Un, Putin and Trump. (Feel free to fill in the next name). THIS is where it is going unless we have the good sense to head it off. If, however, we and all those who are cheering it on have to go through the hell it will deliver,… Read more »
Try reading the news instead watching ‘shows’.
The news is one big effin’ show ! British News Media are part of the problem as things stand. They thrive on sensation and only give cursory examination of real issues. Even the so called middle of the road groups are engaging in manipulation and distortion.
GB News is news ? Get real
To Hell
Members or shareholders?
Hmmm, Labour has had the biggest membership for years – even during the Tories latest 14 year spell. The biggest membership doesn’t necessarily mean the biggest parliamentary seat gain in elections. This is all, once again, just a big publicity gimmick by Farage. Don’t fall for his rhetoric, it’s what he wants. With Farage – the less publicity he’s given the less oxygen his party will have.
Thats awfully blinkered there. Ignore him and he keeps growing, backed by the BBC and right wing media. He is a huge threat, face him down as we did with UKIP in our Senedd, who no longer exist. Fight lies with fire.
Exactly, it’s because he’s getting all this attention from the media he’s rising in the polls. If you look at the audience’s reaction to Farage on Question Time it’s generally negative. For instance, most people in this country do not believe in migrant and people on benefits bashing, don’t believe Brexit has ‘unleashed’ Britain or will do so in the future. It’s the media hype about Farage that’s helping him.
With respect, people laughed at trump getting the top job. First go around was considered a surprising win but version 2 is deadly serious out the block dictator with musk as controller. We need to take him head on. Challenge him at every opportunity. Platitudes with this person got us brexit (see BBC othering especially Question Time).
Wonder who is pushing this cult up the hit list.
Any one in the press actually pinned this slimy eel down on policy?
https://bylinetimes.com/2025/02/06/nigel-farages-reform-mps-are-most-boosted-uk-politicians-on-elon-musks-x-despite-tiny-parliamentary-presence/
The Byline Times….hilarious, Make sure to check the Guardian too.
What did they get wrong?
There are going to be lot of disappointed people in Wales when their vote is wasted. Obviously Ukip & Brexit party was a protest vote. I can recall the same rhetoric was said about both parties when riding high in the polls until they actually got into power after the English councils & Senedd elections. Look what happened. They were an unmitigated disaster. Accusations of racism, xenophobia , violence, corruption were made towards their council members in England & EU parliament. And in Wales neglect of office by Ukip/Brexit Party AMs/MSs. A good example are Nathan Gill & Neil Hamilton.… Read more »
Wasted, like voting for PC??
No fan of Farage, but UK politics needs a damm good shake up. We are slipping down every world league table and are a wash with economic migration lowering productivity and GDP per capita doing things like hand car washes!
People selling their soul to loud mouth liars. Time people read the whole picture and not the awful misleading and mainly populist lying headklien that is Farage, the failed MEP and failed MP. Or Tice the muslim and immigrant hating in Dubai and not his constituency. Don’t be nice , point out the obvious, they don’t serve the voter in any form, unless super rich.
Sadly, I think there are quite a lot of voters who look as if they might now buy into Farage’s guff. These days, as older age now inhibits me in tedious ways which prevent me from enjoying the more active pastimes which used to absorb me until quite recently, I find myself listening in to a lot more ‘talk radio’ programmes than was once the case. And in the last few weeks I hear more and more folk phoning in and expressing the view that, given that they have a low opinion both of what fourteen years of Conservative governments… Read more »
After 14 years of Tory guff, we’ve now been subject to seven months of Labour guff. Starmer et al have quickly proven themselves to be as corrupt, dishonest, and morally bankrupt as anything we’ve seen previously. For some people it’s a case of any guff has to be better than this.
‘For some people it’s a case of any guff has to be better than this.’
Seems indeed to be the case for those calling the phone-ins. They’ve not forgiven the Conservatives, but they’re significantly unimpressed by Labour’s performance thus far. So they look to the newly burgeoning alternative.
Glad to see you’ve realised Refuk is “guff”
Unfortunately the Wetherspoons voter is a thing. Not one of them has ever read a candidates voting history, researched any of their background or even contacted them to ask them their views on something.
Instead we’ve got an “anger vote” going on. They’ve listened to the empty promises of the King of creepy uncles and because he’s shouted the same nonsense the loudest, and with the best catchphrases, they’re all over him.
This is just dangerous for all ends of the political spectrum, and society as a whole. Do the farage voters understand? Do they care?