Kemi Badenoch has drawn criticism from Conservatives and pollsters after the Tory leader became embroiled in a spat with Nigel Farage over party membership numbers.
Tory sources have warned Badenoch to avoid getting into online rows with the Reform leader after he claimed his party now boasted more members than the Conservatives.
Badenoch issued a series of tweets on Boxing Day to claim Reform’s membership figures were based on “fakery” and that Farage’s party was resorting to “endless lies, smoke and mirrors, stuff-and-nonsense politics”.
The Tory leader doubled down on her attacks on Friday, with a Conservative Party source telling The i Paper: “Fake Farage is clearly rattled that his Boxing Day Publicity Stunt is facing serious questions over a fake clock and hundreds of ‘members’ seemingly joining in the middle of the night.
“Like most normal people around the UK, Kemi is enjoying Christmas with her family and looking forward to taking on the challenges of renewing the Conservative Party in the New Year.”
The decision to get involved in an online scrap with Farage has been questioned by Conservatives after it dominated headlines during the festive period.
One Tory insider said the party needed to be alive to the threat from Reform, particularly when it came to the forthcoming local elections.
But they added: “Membership doesn’t mean success. Picking a fight seems pointless – never wrestle with a pig as they say. Farage and Co are total chancers so maybe it’s fake but not sure what Kemi is gaining by having yet another Twitter fight.
“Tories need to focus on getting their own house in order and they have a bit of time. I suspect they’ll panic though, after the locals even though it’s inevitable and not Kemi’s fault.”
It comes as the war of words rumbled into Friday with Farage seizing on the claims of alleged “fraud” from the Tory leader and announced that Reform would open up its membership figures to media organisations to be independently verified.
Taking to Twitter/X, the Reform leader added: “I am now demanding Kemi Badenoch apologises.”
He later threatened to take legal action against the Tory leader, telling Sky News he was “not going to take it lying down”.
The i Paper understands that certain shadow Cabinet members harbour doubts over Badenoch’s decision to get involved in a fight with Farage over something as trivial as membership numbers.
One Tory MP described the row between the two leaders as “total bollocks”, while pollsters have also questioned the wisdom in Badenoch fighting Farage over such matters.
Luke Tryl, director of the More in Common think tank, said the Tories were right not to ignore Reform but suggested the leadership needed to pick its battles.
“The Tories should know better than to get into a fight about membership numbers with Farage, we saw in 2019 that you can have far more members than your opponents and be unable to translate that into votes.
“But what is becoming abundantly clear is that the main parties’ strategy of not engaging with Reform isn’t working and has allowed them to build momentum over the autumn. Their task now is for them to work out how best to attack back.
“That means ignoring Reform’s stunts – otherwise you just draw more attention to them – and instead starting to identify weaknesses in Reform’s policy platform and challenging them on it.”
The row erupted after a digital counter on the Reform website showed a membership tally before lunchtime on Boxing Day ticking past the 131,680 figure declared by the Conservative Party during its leadership election earlier this year.
When the figure was announced, Mr Farage said it was a “historic moment”.
Reform party chair Zia Yusuf claimed on Friday that the online membership counter had been the subject of a cyber attack, suggesting it may have happened at the hands of the “legacy parties”.
Reform was set up as a limited company and in September Farage announced that he would change the ownership structure so that it would be owned by members.
What is the difference in party memberships?
The row between the Conservatives and Reform has shone a light on the often opaque world of political party membership.
There were 131,680 Conservative members eligible to vote during the party’s leadership election to replace Rishi Sunak in the autumn, but Mrs Badenoch claimed in her attack on Reform that “the Conservative Party has gained thousands of new members since the leadership election”.
Meanwhile, Reform is now claiming that since the row erupted on Boxing Day, 141,000 members have now signed up to the new political party.
It is practically impossible to accurately tell how many members each party holds as the figures are rarely opened up to independent scrutiny, although Reform has said it is willing for its data to be independently verified.
Anyone who signs up to become a Conservative member will have to pay £39 a year annually, or £3.50 per month and will receive voting rights in party elections after three months.
To join Reform, anyone over the age of 25 must pay £25 a year, whereas those under 25 receive a discount and are charged just £10 a year.
Unlike other political parties, Reform was set up as a private company but Nigel Farage has claimed he would change the ownership structure so that it will eventually be owned by its members.
