Nigel Farage has been mocked by his political rivals after the Reform UK leader addressed rows of empty seats at an event in London.

Mr Farage blamed “staff incompetence” for arranging the event, organised to announce Reform’s so-called “economic rescue plan”, on a day when business owners were likely to be focused on their work.

According to reports, guests who had attended were moved to seats behind the podium ahead of the speech to make it appear the hall was full behind Mr Farage and Mr Jenrick when they appeared on live broadcasts.

“As for this hall, well, staff incompetence,” Mr Farage told reporters. “It's all well and good advertising to businesses, but on Mondays, people who run businesses tend to be rather busy.

"For those who are here, it's going to have cost them a very great deal of money to have driven up here today to come visit us here in London.”

The poor showing followed new polling published on the weekend that showed Reform, a right-wing party, had continued to slip behind Labour following Andy Burnham becoming Prime Minister in July.

The poll by Ipsos put Labour on 32%, the Tories on 24% and Reform on 20%.

Labour and the Tories used the images of empty seats in the hall to mock Mr Farage.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “It must be cringingly embarrassing for Farage and Jenrick to be forced to address a half-empty room.

“At her pre-Budget press conference, Kemi Badenoch addressed a room of over 300 passionate activists.

“Reform have already stolen numerous policies that the Conservatives have previously announced for their ‘rescue plan’.

“Now it looks as if they need to steal some of our activists to fill a room.”

Labour minister Ann Turley posted a clip of Mr Farage’s speech on X, with the message: “Blaming staff because nobody turned up is like blaming the postman because nobody sent you a birthday card.”

A Labour source told The Mirror: "We can only hope the crickets in the room enjoyed it as much as Nigel clearly did."

Mr Farage and Reform’s activities have been under the spotlight in recent month.

The Clacton MP quit his seat in the summer to fight a “people versus the establishment” by-election as he faced financial allegations surrounding a £5 million donation and a parliamentary probe.

The major parties refused to contest the by-election, leaving his main challenger as Count Binface. Labour joked that Mr Farage had opted to spend his summer “arguing with a bin”.

A sting by ITV, broadcast earlier this month, showed Reform activists, including councillors in London, making racist remarks and arguing for the death penalty to be reinstated for some offences.

Dean Miller, a Reform councillor in Bromley who has since resigned from the party, was secretly recorded allegedly claiming that King Charles was a Muslim and describing black children as "animals".

Reform has since said it has reported the broadcaster to the police over its undercover reporting.