Nigel Farage addressed North West Essex residents this evening (Image: Getty)
The Reform UK leader was the last speaker to take to the stage at the rally held in North West Essex tonight, as the party hopes to convert Conservative voters in Kemi Badenoch’s constituency.
The speech was also live-streamed across social media platforms, and included a membership counter on the right-hand side of the screen.
Throughout the two-hour rally, the total figure increased by 399. Starting with 190,152 members, the party ended with 190,551 Reform UK paying supporters. During ’s speech alone, a whopping 232 individuals signed up to join the party, according to the counter.
Nigel Farage warns Kemi Badenoch that she should be scared of her constituents (Image: Getty)
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The highlighting of the live membership numbers follows a row with Ms Badenoch over his party’s official figures, during which the Tory leader doubted the legitimacy of the numbers published by Reform UK.
Explaining the background to the row, Mr Farage detailed the reasoning for the tracker, which started over Christmas following a membership push.
He said on stage: “On Boxing Day we went through 131,860 and that number was significant because that’s the number of ballot papers the Conservative Party sent out in the last leadership election.
“So we can say, without doubt, we now were the second biggest party in the country. What a Boxing Day present that was. Until about 5 o’clock on Boxing Day evening, the right honourable member for North West Essex decided to comment on the situation and she was, I have to say, less than flattering.”
He then said the next best action after suing would be to go and meet his “fake members in the North West Essex constituency”. He joked: “You don’t look very fake to me, you look very real.”
In a stern message to Ms Badenock, Mr Farage then said: “The opposition should be bloody scared of you.”
Reform UK Rally In North West Essex on January 31 (Image: Getty)
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The rally was attended by four of five Reform’s MPs and around 400 members. The crowd heard speeches from Rupert Lowe, Lee Anderson, and .
Prior to the event, Ms Badenoch insisted she was “not at all” worried about tonight’s rally.
She said it was “not a surprise that at the moment protest parties are gaining in the polls”.
She added: “The job that the British people have given me is to fight for them, be the leader of the opposition, hold the Government to account.
“That’s why I’m here talking about the family farm tax. It’s really important that we tell people what’s going on with farming and how Labour’s policies are going to destroy it. That’s much more important than having a rally about myself.”