Never wrestle with a pig. You get dirty. And besides, the pig likes it.
Looking at the festive ding-dong that’s broken out between Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, you do wonder if the Tory leader should take on board this famous quote – because there was only ever going to be one winner from this spat.
The Reform UK leader has spent the thick end of three decades dragging his political opponents into fights that ultimately benefit his cause. This is no different.
What would have been a relatively low-key Christmas stunt has been elevated into literal front page news.
Reform UK insiders say that, in turn, is driving more people to the party and pushing up their member count further.
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Part of this is down to news editors grabbing on to any bit of politics that’s around during the quiet period between Christmas and New Year.
Why Badenoch and her team didn’t clock this and hold back will likely bewilder some in her party.
An argument the Tories should have swerved
What’s more, the Tory leader is also currently on the back foot regarding her central accusation that the Reform membership number is fake.
Reform agreed to show Sky News details of their account on NationBuilder – a platform that manages memberships and donations for many political parties.
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The number of active memberships in the account portal matched the figure on the ticker – with their website count growing in size shortly after the NationBuilder tally increased.
Sky News also conducted its own analysis on the ticker and found nothing suspicious as it stands (read the full analysis here).
Kemi Badenoch has said Reform changed the coding when people began to point out the alleged discrepancy, but has yet to provide any evidence to back this up.
Either way, this is still an argument the Tories should probably have swerved.
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All politicians need to pick their battles
Yes, signed-up members mean more income for a party, but they don’t necessarily translate into wider electoral success. After all, Labour’s membership surged under Jeremy Corbyn, but he still lost two elections.
But that’s not to say both main parties shouldn’t be looking very closely in their rearview mirror at Reform.
The party’s reaction to this row shows a far more professional behind-the-scenes operation than the previous, more ramshackle incarnations of the Farage-led political machine.
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Talk to long time allies of the Reform leader, and even they sound somewhat surprised by how slick their project has got.
They also point to electoral milestones on the horizon where the party’s results at the ballot box can be objectively tracked – beginning with May’s local elections next year and running through the Welsh Assembly vote in 2026.
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There’ll be many more attempts by Nigel Farage to wrestle with his political opponents before then.
The task for the Tory and indeed Labour leaders is to pick their fights and judge how dirty they are prepared to get.
