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Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has said its membership has overtaken the Conservatives for the first time, in a sign of growing momentum for the populist upstart that has just five MPs in parliament.

Reform had more than 132,000 members on Thursday morning, according to the party’s live online tally, surpassing the 131,860 Tory members at the time Kemi Badenoch was elected as leader of the opposition last month.

Farage has sought to capitalise on the general election defeat the Tories suffered at the hands of Labour in July, and said at a press conference this month that the Tory “brand is broken”.

“This is a big, historic moment,” Farage said on Thursday. “The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world. Reform UK are now the real opposition.”

Reform won five MPs at the election and received a further boost earlier in December when Farage met Elon Musk in the US. Farage said the tech billionaire was considering donating to Reform.

Farage has sought to bolster Reform’s ground campaign by expanding its membership across swaths of the UK where it already has some support, including Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Wales.

The party has been vocal about its plans to emulate the electoral tactics employed by the Liberal Democrats, who have typically targeted smaller numbers of seats in local and national elections, honing their messaging and policy platforms to the electorate in those regions.

Reform is trying to find thousands of supporters willing to canvas and collect data for the party, as well as stand as councillors in local elections next year.

The party is hoping to win hundreds of council seats at local elections in May, as well as at least one mayoralty.