Richard Tice told Times Radio the Conservative leader should apologise for making the claim, but stopped short of saying the party would take legal action against her if she did not.
In response, Mr Tice said: “It’s like in business, the first loss is the best loss. She should just recognise and actually get some credit for saying ‘look, I got this wrong, had a bit of a dodgy Christmas pudding or whatever’ and just apologise. It looks ridiculous.”
“I hope she does the right thing and apologise and just move on, otherwise I suspect she’ll have 120 Tory MPs behind her aghast at her misstep during this festive season.”
Farage attends the Old Surrey, Burstow and West Kent Hunt in Chiddingstone (Photo: Kevin Coombs/Reuters)Badenoch has claimed that Reform’s online membership counter was “coded to tick up automatically”.
Farage pushed back against reports suggesting that legal action would be the next step, as officials from both parties continued the row.
He said Reform had opened up its systems to media outlets, including The Daily Telegraph and The Financial Times, in the “interests of full transparency to verify that our data is correct”.
Farage, on whether he was threatening legal action or not, told the PA news agency: “I haven’t threatened anything. I’ve just said that unless I get an apology, I will take some action.
He added: “All I’ve said is I want an apology. If I don’t get an apology, I will take action.
Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK (Photo: Joe Giddens/PA Wire)
Farage went on: “She (Mrs Badenoch) has put out this crazy conspiracy theory and she needs to apologise.”
A Conservative Party source claimed Farage was “rattled” that his Boxing Day “publicity stunt is facing serious questions”.
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Read MoreBadenoch, in a series of messages posted on X on Boxing Day, said: “Farage doesn’t understand the digital age. This kind of fakery gets found out pretty quickly, although not before many are fooled.”
Mrs Badenoch claimed in her thread that “the Conservative Party has gained thousands of new members since the leadership election”.
He said: “The shades, the bomber jacket, the whole vibe. Elon makes us cool – Elon is a huge help to us with the young generation, and that will be the case going on and, frankly, that’s only just starting.
“Reform only wins the next election if it gets the youth vote. The youth vote is the key.”
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