Nigel Farage said Reform has seen a surge in new members after Kemi Badenoch won the Tory leadership race.

The Reform leader said the insurgent party has passed 95,000 members after 1,500 sign-ups in recent days.

The Clacton MP’s comments come after Ms Badenoch was unveiled as Rishi Sunak‘s successor on Saturday after beating right-wing rival Robert Jenrick.

Asked if Reform had seen a boost in its membership, Mr Farage told LBC: “Seeing it already. Seeing it already.

“We’ve gone through 95,000 members this morning. So we’ve gone up 1,500 in the last three or four days.

“And these are Conservatives who are hanging on to see whether the party could change direction. For us as a party, it’s very good news.”

The arch-Brexiteer added: “There’s going to be no change whatsoever. She is a continuity candidate with all the influences of Michael Gove and all the gang in 10 Downing Street, and somehow she thinks, miraculously, she can bring them together.

“There are two parties within the Conservative Party. You’ve got the Reform-minded people and the Liberal Democrat-minded people, and they are so far apart, it’s not true.”

It comes after Mr Farage clashed with Ms Badenoch on social media when the leadership race was in full swing during the Tory conference last month.

The Reform leader said: “Kemi Badenoch has spent weeks positioning herself as tough on immigration.

“But in 2018 she campaigned in Parliament to increase legal migration, and was the biggest champion for students bringing in dependents. I don’t believe a word that she says on anything.”

But Ms Badenoch hit back, saying she “preferred Nigel’s earlier work” after he wrote in 2022 that only she “has the genuine conviction to talk about legal and illegal immigration, completing Brexit by leaving the ECHR and ending the poison that has been taught to our children in schools”.

The former business and trade secretary added: “Since seeing me as the next Conservative leader and a threat to winning back Reform voters, he’s stopped doing so. Oh well.”