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Nigel Farage's Reform UK party said its membership had surpassed the Conservatives for the first time, in a sign of growing momentum for the populist upstart with five members of Parliament.
Update it had more than 132,000 members on Thursday morning, according to the online group, surpassing the 131,860 Tory members when Kemi Badenoch was elected opposition leader last month.
Farage He sought to capitalize on the Tories' poor general election defeat at the hands of Labor in July, and said at a press conference this month that the Tory “brand is broken”.
“This is a huge, historic moment,” Farage said on Thursday. “The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world. Reform in the UK is now the real opposition. “
The reform won five MPs in the election and received a further boost in early December when Farage met Elon Musk in the US. Farage said the tech billionaire was thinking about contributing to the Reformation.
Farage has tried to strengthen the Reform campaign by expanding his membership in many parts of the UK where he already has some support, including Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Wales.
The party has talked about its plans to emulate the electoral tactics used by the Liberal Democrats, who have targeted a small number of seats in local and national elections, honing their messages and policy platforms to voters in those areas.
Renewal is trying to find thousands of supporters who are willing to canvass and gather data for the organization, as well as stand as councilors in next year's local elections.
The party hopes to win hundreds of council seats in local elections in May, and at least one mayor.