Nigel Farage is set to make a major announcement hours after he welcomed two former Conservative councillors to Reform UK.

The leader of Reform UK has appeared at rallies in Essex and County Durham this weekend as the organisation seeks support ahead of local and regional elections.

On Sunday (February 2), Mr Farage teased what he suggested would be a major announcement.

Posting on X, he said: “At 5pm I will announce the biggest UK political rally in modern times.”

In an apparent dig at Reform’s only having five MPs, former Tory minister Steve Baker replied with a link to the UK Parliament’s state of the parties webpage, which details how many seats each party has in the Commons.

Reform UK gained five seats in the July 2024 general election compared to Labour’s 402, the Conservative Party’s 121 and Lib Dems’ 72.

Despite its showing in Parliament, Reform UK is surging in Westminster voting intention polls, with seven major pollsters putting it ahead of the Tories for the first time.

The forthcoming announcement follows Mr Farage revealing at a rally in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, that former Tory councillors Cathy Hunt and Joe Quinn had joined Reform UK.

Mr Quinn and Ms Hunt were former Durham County Council Tories. Their defection takes Reform’s councillor numbers in the local authority to three out of 163.

Reform has been holding a series of rallies across the UK as it hopes to win more council seats and constituencies in the devolved nations in the upcoming elections.

At a rally on Friday (January 31), Mr Farage compared Reform UK’s rise in the polls with Donald Trump’s presidential victory in the US.

The rally, which heard speeches from four of Reform’s five MPs, came after a spat between Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch and Mr Farage over party membership figures during the Christmas period.

Mr Farage told Reform members on Friday that the Tories should be “bloody scared” of them as he spoke about the row with Mrs Badenoch.

The rally came as voting intention polls suggested the party has overtaken the Conservatives. One poll from Techne UK puts Reform in second place with 24%, one point ahead of the Conservatives on 23% and two points behind first-placed Labour on 26%.

The next general election has to take place no later than August 15, 2029.