Reform UK supporters to gather in Kemi Badenoch’s constituency as ‘gloves off’
Reform supporters will gather in Kemi Badenoch’s constituency on Saturday, after their leader promised “the gloves are off” in the next election bout against her.
Nigel Farage will host a Reform UK rally at Chelmsford City Racecourse, his second this year after a similar event in Leicester.
The MPs – who both represent areas of Essex – have rowed over Reform’s online membership counter, which Conservative leader Badenoch claimed on Boxing Day was a “fake, coded to tick up automatically”.
Ahead of his racecourse rally in the North West Essex constituency, which Badenoch won last July with a 2,610 majority over Labour, Farage said: “You had your chance. You accused me of being dishonest. You had your chance to apologise. Well now the gloves are off.”
The opposition leader wrote in an X post after Christmas that Reform’s membership tally was “a fake, coded to tick up automatically”, adding: “We’ve been watching the back end for days and can also see they’ve just changed the code to link to a different site as people point this out.
“Farage doesn’t understand the digital age.
“This kind of fakery gets found out pretty quickly, although not before many are fooled. Like many of you, I am sick of the endless lies, smoke and mirrors, stuff and nonsense politics.”
Several media outlets including The Spectator and Financial Times reported having been shown the code for calculating and displaying the online ticker, which they found appeared to function properly.
Farage, the MP for Clacton, said since her social media posts, Badenoch had “chosen not to take the opportunity” to apologise for her claim.
His audience in Leicester shouted “sue her” when Mr Farage asked: “What to do?”
He replied: “It’s all well and good saying ‘sue her’ but you have to prove actual harm. She hasn’t harmed us. She’s given us tens of thousands more members.
“But what I am going to do – isn’t it delightful that the Eastern region conference tomorrow takes place at Chelmsford Racecourse which happens to be in her parliamentary constituency, which is good.
“And better than that, on 31st of this month, we’ve booked a big venue and I’m going to invite all our members and supporters in North West Essex to come along to meet me, to have a photograph.
“And we already have 800 supporters in her constituency, nearly 400 of whom have signed up as members, and we’ll do a big joint photograph and I’ll tell Kemi, not only are these not fake members, but we’re now going to make this a target constituency for the next general election.
“You had your chance. You accused me of being dishonest. You had your chance to apologise. Well now the gloves are off.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also faces challenges from Farage, according to a new poll.
According to a seat-by-seat projection by Stonehaven, published in The i Paper, Reform would win 120 Commons seats at the next election, while Labour would have 278 MPs left, down from 411 at the 2024 election.
Among Reform’s gains from Labour could be Dover and Deal in Kent and South West Norfolk, which Terry Jermy took from former Conservative prime minister Liz Truss last July.
But North West Essex would remain under Conservative control, according to the model.
Press Association – Will Durrant