Reform UK has gained 20,000 supporters since a row erupted between Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage over its membership numbers, according to the party.

A digital counter on Reform’s website ticked past 152,000 paid-up supporters on Sunday.

The online membership tracker had surpassed the last-known Tory membership total of 131,680 on Boxing Day before Ms Badenoch accused Mr Farage of “fakery”.

The Conservative leader claimed Reform’s counter was “coded to tick up automatically”.

She also said the Tories had gained thousands of new members since the leadership election in the autumn.

But Mr Farage said the accusations of “fraud and dishonesty” made against him were “disgraceful”.

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The Reform leader invited several media outlets to check its system for the membership counter.

The Clacton MP has also demanded an apology from Ms Badenoch.

He has been spending the weekend weighing up what action to take if she ignored his demand to apologise.

But he has pushed back against reports suggesting legal action would be the next step.

Mr Farage said: “She (Mrs Badenoch) has put out this crazy conspiracy theory and she needs to apologise.”