Reform UK suspends another councillor just hours before a Kent County Council meeting
Reform UK appears to have lost another councilor in its home office in Kent, hours before a key meeting.
A full council meeting is currently taking place in Kent; This is the first meeting since footage emerged of a chaotic online meeting last month that resulted in the suspension of several members.
Isabella Kemp, who represents Sheppey, is now listed as an independent on the council’s website. He and Reform UK have been approached for comment.
The party took control of the KCC in May, winning 57 of 81 seats; but ongoing suspensions and dismissals mean fewer than 50 Reform councilors remain in authority.
Just last week Bill Barrett, Oliver Bradshaw and Paul Thomas were kicked out of Reform UK, along with another councilor Brian Black, following investigations.
This comes after footage of an online meeting in which KCC leader Linden Kemkaran berated councilors who questioned him was leaked to the press.
At a full council meeting on Thursday, Mr Thomas, one of the suspended councillors, challenged members of his former party about the ongoing road closures.
He accused the council of “kicking the can down the road”, saying residents were “suffering” and had been left without bus services for up to six weeks.
He said the council needed to go “broader and deeper” and suggested an independent investigation into the matter.
Peter Osborne, cabinet member for highways and transport, said his powers were not sufficient to prevent such emergency works being carried out.
The issue of reducing the number of members of the council was raised by several opposition members and Ms Kemkaran, who insisted: “We have been sitting here for six months, we too may be a little weaker in numbers, but we are much stronger and fully ready for war.”
But chaotic management has been likened to the popular TV series traitors The council’s Green Party leader, Mark Hood, said members were waiting to see who else could be considered for this.
Antony Hook, the Liberal Democrats’ leader in Kent, said the council was in a “political crisis” and he had heard “bets are being made” on whether the administration would last until Christmas. He called on council members “not to act in a way that becomes a punchline.” Do I have news for you?”.
Council leader Richard Palmer had to remind councilors of the Nolan principles several times during the meeting, and the room erupted into laughter several times.
At one point Ms Kemkaran described her opposition’s contribution as “going from Halloween to panto season in the blink of an eye”.
Kent’s deputy leader Brian Collins was forced to speak to laughter in the room after he could not rule out whether the council would increase council tax.
He was asked by Green Party councilor Stuart Heaver how much less residents could expect to pay next year. Mr Collins thanked Mr Heaver for allowing him to “address some of the nonsense that is being talked about in the media about council tax” and said “no decisions have been made” on the issue.
He said councilors could “laugh” and “grin” but insisted it was Reform’s “intention to one day reduce council tax”.
More in this story…
