Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has suspended another member of its “flagship” county council in Kent as it held its first full meeting since the party’s councillors were thrown into crisis by a leaked meeting revealing bitter internal tensions.
The departure of Isabella Kemp, who had also worked as a data protection officer at Reform’s HQ, means that the party has lost nine of the 57 councillors elected during the local elections in May.
The latest turmoil comes after the Guardian published a recording of an incendiary internal meeting in which the council leader, Linden Kemkaran, told dissenting Reform UK colleagues they had to “fucking suck it up” if they didn’t like her decisions.
Four Reform councillors were suspended shortly after the leak. One of those and another who had been suspended over separate allegations have now formed an “Independent Reformers” group on the council.
Kemkaran faced questions at a full meeting of the council on Thursday about the real-world impact of the suspension of Kemp, who had been chair of the adult social care and public health cabinet committee.
The Liberal Democrats, who are the second-largest group with 12 councillors, appealed to Kemkaran to restore Kemp, who now sits as an independent, as chair of the important committee.
Another impact of Reform’s suspensions of its councillors was felt last month by another committee, which had been preparing to adjudicate on appeals by at least seven families who say they need supported school transport for their children. It had to be cancelled because its chair was among those suspended by Kemkaran.
Kemkaran herself was in combative form during the meeting on Thursday, likening her experience to that of her son, who she said had just finished phase one of military training and had been “beaten up and ambushed”.
She compared the drop-out rate among his fellow recruits to the axing of former Reform councillors in Kent, telling the meeting: “Along the way some had quit because they couldn’t hack it. Others had been thrown out for bad behaviour or were simply unwilling to accept discipline.”
“It did make me reflect on my own troops,” said Kemkaran, who had earlier answered with a single word, “yes”, when an opposition councillor asked if she believed her behaviour was in line with the Nolan principles setting out recognised standards in public life, and Kent’s own code of conduct.
Kemkaran has also come under pressure from other council leaders in Kent after the leaked video showed her complaining about some of them, who she said had a “shocking” level of ignorance about the coming local government reform plans, and suggesting that they did not like her because she was a woman.
On Thursday, Reform also faced repeated pressure from opposition councillors over the question of whether it would be raising council tax after promising savings in leaflets to voters in the local elections. A senior member of Reform’s Kent team let slip earlier last month that rates may have to rise by the maximum of 5%.
Brian Collins, a member of the Reform cabinet, said no decision had been made on council tax as the local authority was awaiting the outcome of a government funding review. Last month, a fellow cabinet member had said she believed Kent would raise council tax by 5% – the maximum permitted – as councils try to honour their legal duty to make sure spending adds up before budgets are set for next year.
“You are running away from residents when it comes to the question of what you will do on council tax,” said Alister Brady, a Labour councillor. While he did not agree with previous Tory administration of what is one of Britain’s largest county councils, which has a £2.5bn annual budget, Brady said that at least the Conservatives had managed to get together spending plans by this point.
Harry Rayner, the Tory leader on the council, said it was now “mired in the consequences of self-inflicted damages” and he had seen nothing to rival it in 40 years of local government experience.
“This council has been made a laughing stock with more clowns on display since I saw Bill Smart’s last circus,” he said.
