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Reform UK has claimed to be the largest political party in Britain, overtaking Labour which has reportedly seen its membership fall below 250,000.
Nigel Farage’s party said it has more than 268,000 members on the live tracker displayed on its website.
Farage said: “As we have suspected for some time, Reform has overtaken Labour to become the largest political party in British politics – a huge milestone on our journey to win the next election. The age of two-party politics is dead.”
Meanwhile, the Times reported that, according to internal figures, the Labour party’s paid-up membership has fallen below 250,000.
Mainstream, the centre-left group backed by Andy Burnham, said the party’s “plummeting membership” showed that its “top-down model has failed”.
Its interim council said in a statement: “To transform Britain and defeat the far-right, Labour needs a grassroots movement in every community.
“The answer is to democratise, open up, and empower members. A vibrant, member-powered Labour party is the only way to win – for our party and the country.”
Labour does not publish a running tally of its membership figures, and only discloses the figure once a year as part of its annual reporting.
Party accounts published in August showed in the year ending December 2024 it had 333,235 members, down from 370,450 at the end of 2023.
The numbers have fallen over consecutive years from a high of more than 500,000 under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
A Labour party spokesperson said: “Our membership figures are published in our annual report. We do not give a running commentary on them throughout the year.”
The apparent rising number of membership contributions to Reform will boost its electoral war chest alongside a recent spate of donations.
The party received a £9m donation in August from Thailand-based businessman Christopher Harborne, Electoral Commission records recently revealed. The sum was the biggest single donation in modern history to a political party from a living person.
Farage insisted Harborne wanted “nothing in return” for the donation and insisted he was “very, very comfortable and confident” in the source of the cash.
The Greens have seen their membership swell from about 70,000 to more than 180,000 since the party’s new leader Zack Polanski was elected in September.
This suggests the Greens have overtaken the Conservatives, whose membership numbers have dwindled in recent years and currently stand at about 123,000.
