Nigel Farage threatens legal action against Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch amid accession…

December 27, 2024, 4:08 p.m. | Updated: December 27, 2024, 5:02 p.m.

Nigel Farage has threatened legal action after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch claimed Reform UK was falsifying its membership numbers.

Earlier this week, Reform UK claimed it now had more members than the Conservatives – 141,000 to the Conservatives’ 131,680.

Ms Badenoch, however, accused the party of falsifying the number in a series of social media posts.

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Mr Farage described the allegations as “absolutely disgusting” as other senior party members called on him to take legal action against the opposition leader.

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“I’m going to take action in the coming days. I have to decide exactly what it is, but I’m certainly not going to sit idly by,” he told Sky News.

“I think it’s an absolutely outrageous thing for him to do,” he continued. “I know she has a very bad temper. I know she’s known for lashing out at people, but I’m not happy at all and I’m going to take action.”

Reform president Zia Yusuf launched a social poll asking his supporters whether far-right Farage should sue Ms Badenoch for “defamation”.

Sources close to the reform leader also suggested that legal action was being considered.

A source told the Telegraph: “The more I read, the worse it is for Kemi.

“Not only did she lie and embarrass herself, but she demonstrated a horrendous lack of judgment.

“Our membership grew even more thanks to his ridiculous conspiracy theories.”

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage told GB News: “The idea of ​​the leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition accusing me of fraud is absolutely disgusting.

“She may be used to being part of a party that lies to the British public. We are not.

“We set up this digital tracker a few days ago showing each person who logs in, gives us their postcode and pays us £25.

“Even since we looked at that figure yesterday morning, the numbers are up five or six thousand more than when we passed the Conservative Party.

“I know Kemi Badenoch is well known for her aggression and outbursts.

“But accusing me of not understanding the digital age, when I have 5.5 million followers on social media and she has less than a third of a million, frankly, was a bit rich.

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He continued: “If the Conservative Party wants us to use one of the big four auditors to check the validity of our numbers against the ballots that were sent out in the leadership contest, of which thousands went to unelected Conservative MPs… I think if the truth came out she would be very, very embarrassed indeed.

“I don’t mind all sorts of comments being made about me, but her accusing him of being a fraud – I’m sorry, I’m not going to leave that alone.”

Writing on Boxing Day, Ms Badenoch suggested Farage “doesn’t understand the digital age” and has been “found out”.

In a subsequent tweet responding to Badenoch, Farage said: “Kemi says I don’t understand the digital age.

“I have 5.4 million followers and she has 320,000.

“We understand that you are bitter, upset and angry because we are now Britain’s second largest political party and the Conservative brand is dying under your leadership.

“However, this is not an excuse to accuse us of fraud.

“We will happily invite any of the Big Four to verify our membership numbers, provided you do the same.

“We have also heard from numerous Conservative whistleblowers swearing under oath that ballots were sent to long-expired or resigned former members during your leadership election.

“At CCHQ, it’s an open secret that your membership numbers are wrong.”

Richard Tice, deputy leader of the Reform Party, told LBC that Badenoch’s reaction was “hysterical”.

He told Simon Marks on Thursday: “It’s hysterical, it’s just deeply, deeply embarrassing for someone who has repeatedly claimed to be an engineer.

“Of course we haven’t falsified the figures, of course those figures are completely accurate, she has actually accused Nigel and us in the Reform Party of fraud.

“I mean, that’s a pretty serious allegation and it shows that she and her colleagues in the Conservative Party don’t understand technology. That figure is pulled through a website, through our server directly from our database of nation builder and is the correct figure.

He later added: “This is a very embarrassing day for Kemi and she will eventually have to apologise.”