JACOB Rees-Mogg has called on Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage to end their war of words and call a New Year’s truce.
The Tory grandee urged both leaders to stop throwing “brickbats at each other” and “unite” to take on Labour.
Kemi Badenoch is at war with Nigel Farage after accusing him of faking his Reform party membership numbers[/caption]
The Conservative and Reform Party bosses have been at each other’s throats all Christmas in a blistering row over membership figures.
Mr Farage is considering suing Kemi after she claimed he faked a membership counter to show Reform had more members than the Tories.
Calling for calm, Sir Jacob told The Sun on Sunday: “The right needs to unite to defeat this catastrophic hard left government and the Tory party must aim to get back to the two million members we used to have.
“They must co-operate rather than throw brickbats at each other.”
But Nigel and Kemi’s rival camps were back trading blows against last night.
Reform UK said that in the 48 hours since Kemi’s Boxing Day tweets another 12,000 members have joined – netting the party £300,000.
Mr Farage said: “All of us at Reform UK would like to thank Kemi for the late Christmas present — she played her part.”
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s X site has put a fact check alert on Kemi’s tweet claiming Reform’s party membership figures were wrong.
The added “reader context” states of the Tory leader’s post: “This claim is false. It is not a fake ticker.”
But a Tory source hit out: “Nigel Farage is spending his time obsessing about Kemi with fake outrage and threats while Kemi is spending time with her family.”
Many Tory MPs think it was a mistake by Kemi to go so hard attacking Nigel over the membership figures on Twitter.
They want her to come out swinging in the New Year and land some big punches on Sir Keir Starmer’s government.
A Tory MP said: “The concern is there is a general lack of action.
“She is meant to be leader of the Opposition. The clue is in the title – she needs to oppose more.”
One Tory frontbencher said: “I do wonder if it was a good idea for her to tweet that.”