Reform suspends four Kent councillors after Guardian publishes leaked video of fierce infighting | Reform UK
Reform UK has sacked four councilors on its flagship borough council after a video was leaked showing bitter divisions within its ranks.
The footage, first published by the Guardian, showed councilors at the Kent county council complaining about “backbiting” and being ignored by their leader Linden Kemkaran, who said they would be “fucked” if they did not accept the decisions he was making.
A spokesman for Nigel Farage’s party said on Monday morning that four councilors on the council, one of 10 where Reform won direct control in local elections earlier this year, have been sacked.
“Councillors Paul Thomas, Oliver Bradshaw, Bill Barrett and Maxine Fothergill have suspended the whip pending an investigation following evidence that they brought the party into disrepute,” the spokesman said.
The suspensions mean Reform, which won 57 seats in elections in May, now has 50 councillors. Two other councilors were suspended, while a third joined Ukip.
Anthony Hook, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the council, warned that the “chaos” in the Reform group was now having a direct impact on needy Kent voters.
He said the council committee that was to deal with school transportation issues and was scheduled to meet Wednesday was canceled because of the suspensions.
“This could potentially mean a child or children being delayed in getting transportation to school,” he said.
“In the leaked video, we learned that they do not even respect each other, let alone respect the public. Now they are enemies of each other.”
Footage of the meeting, which took place in late August, showed Reform councilors complaining about “backbiting” and being ignored by Kemkaran, who told them they would “go bankrupt” and that Reform could forget about winning the general election if they did not balance the City’s budget.
A source told the Guardian on Monday morning that councilors had been sacked “without conclusive evidence” and there were “panic stations” in the Reform group in Kent, which Kemkaran described as a “demonstration” of the party’s intention to win power in the general election.
They added that a no-confidence vote in Kemkaran was being prepared at the beginning of November, either from the opposition or from within Reform UK.
In an email sent over the weekend, Kemkaran told his fellow council members that he was going after the “cowards” who leaked the recorded meeting.
