Why Reform's new haul of recruits might end up disappointing Nigel Farage

Reform's claim to have eclipsed the Conservative Party’s 131,680 members by Boxing Day sparked a public row with the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch over the veracity of the figure.

In the following seven days Reform apparently put on 33,000 members to achieve a total that had passed 165,000 by Thursday evening .

If the current ticker rate continued it would double the Tory total well before the end of January .

Party Members Project found Reform members were very active in campaigning for their party on social media but less so in their local community.

34% of Reform members delivered party leaflets compared to 47% of Tory members, 50% of Labour members and 59% of Liberal Democrat members.

Just 21% Reform members took part in canvassing, compared to 29% for the Tories , 30% for Labour and 31% for Liberal Democrats .

The heyday for party membership was in the 50s , when there were around 2.8 m in the Conservative Party and one million in the Labour Party .

Today , membership of the Tories has fallen to a historic low.

Under Jeremy Corbyn , Labour was able to temporarily buck the trend in falling membership.

But while Reform ’s recruitment surge has given it momentum going into the election, an impressive membership total is not enough in itself to transform the electoral prospects.