It was meant to be the showcase local authority that would prove Reform UK would be capable of governing should it win the next general election in 2029.
But instead the bitter and public infighting among former and current Reform councillors risks doing exactly the opposite.
Two of the nine councillors suspended by Reform after a public row last October have now condemned the current leadership in Kent as “narcisstic lunatics” with one claiming appeals to Nigel Farage to be reinstated have been ignored.
Councillor Brian Black was one of five councillors expelled from the Party in October after infighting on the council became very public following a leaked video. The reason for his expulsion was for showing “a pattern of dishonest and deceptive behaviour”.
He has now told The i Paper that appeals to Nigel Farage for reinstatement have been ignored, and they have so far received no response after lodging complaints over their suspensions and expulsions from the party.
“I think they’ve just sat on them. I don’t think Nigel Farage has seen them. He’s a very busy man” he said.
Colleagues criticised
Cllr Black has also criticised his former colleagues for employing two political assistants on a salary of £49,000 each last month at a time when the council wants to make cuts.
“It’s a disgrace,” he said. “They’ve had a £9 million donation, they don’t need to make Kent council tax payers pay for their political assistants.”
The £9m donation came from a cryptocurrency investor Christopher Harborne last month.
The £150,000 budget for the political assistant roles was approved by councillors earlier last year, and two of the appointments made last month.
A Reform spokesman said the posts would be cost neutral, as another post had been abolished.
In May’s elections Reform won 57 out of 81 seats on Kent County Council, ending 30 years of Conservative administration.
It is considered Reform’s flagship council, with leader Linden Kemkaran arguing that how it is run will be crucial to the party’s general election prospects.
Reform has maintained a lead in the polls for much of last year, but Nigel Farage acknowledges their weakness is their lack of experience in government.
The hope is that successfully run councils will help persuade voters the party can be trusted in government.
Leadership ‘out of control’
But since October Nigel Farage’s Party has expelled or suspended nine councillors, who say they have been pushed out for questioning a council leadership they accuse of being “dictatorial and out of control”.
Another of the nine councillors, Robert Ford, who has been expelled from Reform following unofficial complaints from female members of staff. He claims he was victimised because he writes erotic novels and denies any allegations.
“It was a lie,” he said. “But I write erotic novels under the pen name RW Mittson, and they are published by Pegasus. The council leadership thought they could use that to give the accusation some credibility.”
His letter of expulsion focuses on an email he sent to fellow Reform councillors saying “we are now a Dictatorship… the leadership is out of control” – which was “insubordination cloaked in self-justification.”
Ford said: “The real reason they expelled me is because I asked questions, I berated Linden Kemkaran for the way she talks to people, and I wanted to see the paperwork before we signed off on decisions.”
Cllr Ford’s past came back to haunt him. When he was 13 he spent three months in a young offenders institution, after which he claims he pulled his life together and has had a solid career in engineering.
He told the Reform leadership on the council about this conviction. They said it debarred him from holding any committee positions.
He added: “I still believe in Reform. I don’t think the top knows what’s going on. Is Nigel Farage getting the truth about Kent? It’s difficult to get hold of Farage, he’s very busy.”
He describes Kent’s Reform leaders as “self-centred narcissistic lunatics.”
Zoom meeting brought everything into the open
Things came to a public head when a Zoom meeting in which the council leader, former BBC journalist Linden Kemkaran, told her councillors that she would take decisions they did not like, and they would have to “f***ing suck it up.”
She muted one councillor, Paul Thomas, who questioned her, and who has now also been expelled from Reform.
The video was leaked to the media, and within two days, four councillors were suspended. Five more followed over the next few weeks.
But a Reform investigation has failed to uncover the identity of the leaker. All nine expelled and suspended councillors insist it was not them.
Cllr Black was at first appointed chair of Kent Fire and Rescue Service (FRS). Four other Reform councillors sat with him. When all five were expelled from the party they were removed from the FRS which meant for the six weeks it took to replace the chair, the fire service had no political leadership.
Cllr Black says that for those six weeks, it could not agree large spending commitments.
“Linden Kemkaran claims it didn’t put Kent people at risk, but it did. In a major emergency there has to be signoff from the chair,” he argued.
Kent Fire Brigades Union (FBU) Secretary Danny Barrett agrees. “It didn’t happen, but it could have done,” he said. “And we could have lost a chance to purchase much-needed new fire engines, if the chance came up to buy a second hand one from another area and there was no chair to sign off the cost. Several of ours are 15 years old.”
Ann Millington, the chief executive of Kent FRS, said the situation did not affect day-to-day service, but could cause problems in “rare” situations.
Cllr Kemkaran has also denied there was a risk.
Other councillors accused of recording confidential meetings
Cllr Black’s letter of expulsion claims it was because he knew of other councillors recording confidential meetings “but chose to withhold this information from the Party,” which he denies.
Black’s vice chair on the FRS was Councillor Isobel (Izzy) Kemp, also now expelled from Reform for setting up a WhatsApp group of discontented councillors.
“The removal of the Chair, Vice Chair, and other key members of the FRS presents a serious and unacceptable risk to both the public and the employees,” she said.
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Ford and Councillor Bill Barrett have now founded a separate group, the Independent Reformers Group.
The rest insist they are loyal to Reform, and will sit out their term as independent councillors. Cllr Kamkaran did not respond to requests for a comment , but in a speech in the council chamber she drew parallels between her party and her son’s army training.
“Some had quit because they couldn’t hack it, others have been thrown out for bad behaviour, because they weren’t good enough or they weren’t team players – not up to the challenge or were simply unable or unwilling to accept discipline,” she said.
A Reform Party spokesman said that both Labour and Liberal councillors had been expelled in other boroughs, and much less attention had been paid to them.
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