The party’s performance in Kent shows it is nowhere near ready for government

[…]

Antony Hook, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Kent, says Reform was convinced they could make large savings from cutting the county’s budget on asylum seekers.

“They were really fixated on it. Every question they’d ask would be about the cost of asylum. We kept explaining that KCC doesn’t have that large a role in that and how it’s mainly a Home Office expense.

“We tried to explain that the big problem is adult social care, but they would just say: ‘What about asylum?’

“This is where reality has now collided with ideology. They said they’d take their chainsaw to a forest of waste. But the chainsaw seems to have been made out of sponge, and rather than a forest they’ve found an open field where there’s nothing to use it on.”

Reform’s first crack at power is already in crisis, The Telegraph