Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is set to speak at a conference in Sunderland today.
The MP for Clacton will be at the event, which is only open to members of the party, in Houghton-le-Spring this afternoon. A notice of the party’s website reads: “Join Nigel Farage at Reform UK’s County Durham Conference, held at Sunderland Live in Houghton-le-Spring on Saturday 1st February.
“This is an event for Members of Reform UK.” The event is scheduled to last for two hours.
It comes less than 24 hour after Mr Farage appeared at a rally in Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s constituency yesterday evening. He was the last speaker to take to the stage at the event, in North West Essex.
The speech was also live-streamed across social media platforms, and included a Reform UK 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 Mr Farage’s speech alone, 232 individuals signed up to join the party, according to the counter.
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.”
View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/reform-uk-leader-nigel-farage-30913845
