Membership of Britain’s upstart anti-immigration Reform UK party has overtaken that of the centre right Conservative Party for the first time, the party said on Thursday.
Party leader and Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage hailed the figure a “historic moment”.
Immigration was a major issue at the ballot box at the UK’s July general election which saw the Conservatives ousted after 14 years in power.
The digital counter on the Reform website showed a membership tally ticking past the 131,680 figure declared by the main opposition Conservatives during its leadership election earlier this year.
“The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world,” wrote Farage on X, formerly Twitter.
“Reform UK are now the real opposition.”
Party chairman Zia Yusuf said the milestone showed the long “stranglehold on the centre-right of British politics by the Tories has finally been broken”.