Reform UK membership surpasses Conservative Party for the first time

MEMBERSHIP of the Reform UK party has surpassed that of the Conservative Party for the first time, the party announced on Thursday.

Nigel Farage, Reform UK leader and a key figure in the Brexit movement, called the milestone a "historic moment."

The shift comes after the July general election, where immigration was a key issue, and the Conservatives were voted out of power after 14 years.

A digital counter on the Reform UK website displayed a membership figure exceeding 131,680, surpassing the Conservatives’ last declared total during their leadership election earlier this year.

Farage wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world. Reform UK are now the real opposition."

Zia Yusuf, Reform UK's chairman, described the achievement as a sign that the Conservatives’ long-standing dominance over the centre-right has been broken.

The Conservative Party’s last declared membership figure was its lowest on record, down from around 172,000 in 2022.

Reform UK secured five seats in the 650-seat UK parliament during the July election, taking about 14 per cent of the total vote.

The party’s gains came at the expense of the Conservatives, splitting the right-wing vote and attracting former Tory supporters in key areas.

Labour won the election by a landslide, though Prime Minister Keir Starmer has faced challenges in his first five months in office. A recent Ipsos poll showed that 53 percent of Britons are "disappointed" with Labour’s performance so far.

British politics has historically been dominated by Labour and the Conservatives, but some commentators note that major parties in the past have faced lasting declines in popularity.

The divided Liberal Party, for instance, lost its status as a major opposition force after World War I, replaced by Labour.

Earlier this month, Farage mentioned that he was in discussions with tech billionaire Elon Musk about potential donations to Reform UK.

(With inputs from AFP)