Reform UK has announced a £1 million last-week advertising splurge ahead of the country going to the polls on Thursday.
The party said it was “flooded” with £400,000 of donations in 24 hours, and that in the month of the General Election campaign the party’s membership had doubled from 30,000 to 60,000.
Reform claims the donations came from “grass-roots” support spurred on by the party’s event held in Birmingham at the weekend, despite last week’s allegations of racism as a result of comments emerging from the Clacton division of the campaign.
The £1 million advertising campaign across national newspapers and websites will seek to drive home the message that only Reform UK will be able to mount an effective opposition to a Labour government.
Party leader Nigel Farage said he was “blown away by the generosity of so many ordinary people who are sick of what is happening to this country”.
He said: “It is humbling but also very telling that they are prepared to back their faith in Reform UK with hard-earned cash and I thank each and every one of them.
“Reform UK is already the leading voice of opposition across the country and by Friday morning we can be the real opposition in Parliament, too. If people want to make it actually happen, all they have to do is vote for it. It’s that simple.”
Over the past week Mr Farage has faced accusations from across the political divide of failing to tackle allegations of racism within Reform which have engulfed the party.
Campaigners for Reform in the Clacton seat Mr Farage hopes to win in Essex were also recorded by an undercover journalist from Channel 4 making racist comments, including about the Prime Minister, who is of Indian descent.
Another activist described the Pride flag as “degenerate” and suggested members of the LGBT community are paedophiles.
Mr Farage said he will put Reform “under much, much stricter control” to avoid the risk of damaging support from ethnic minority voters.
He told Times radio: “This is a start-up party. I took it over a month ago. There were some people there that should never, ever have been there and I’m sorry for that.
“And nobody is angrier than I am, particularly as we’re doing so well with black and ethnic minority voters… Yes, some bad apples in a start-up. They’re gone. And I won’t have anyone like it in the future in the party. I’m going to put this thing under a much, much stricter control.”
He added: “How interesting that despite all these smears, YouGov polling yesterday showing that Reform now has more black and ethnic minority voters than the Liberal Democrats. So Channel 4 can do what they want. People out there are bright enough to work things out.”
With a rake of candidate controversies relating to racist, xenophobic or homophobic social media activity, Mr Farage said his party was “badly let down” by a company they contracted to vet candidates.
Mr Farage said: “When I took this over a month ago, we had hardly any staff and no money… Yes, we’ve got things to sort out, as every party does. But believe me, something is happening out there.”
The Reform leader also restated his pledge not to join the Conservative party, amid speculation he wants to attempt a “reverse takeover”.
He said: “For the moment, the Conservative Party is a broad church with no religion. I mean, they don’t agree on anything.
“They don’t stand for anything other than their own jobs or ministerial cars. I mean, frankly, the Conservative Party virtually doesn’t exist. This is for Reform.
“Thursday is the first big step. And what we’re going to do over the next few years is to build a mass movement for real change and that includes the electoral system and much else.”
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