The leader of Reform UK-run Kent County Council has described the suspensions and expulsions of councillors from her party as “a sorry state of affairs”.
Linden Kemkaran was speaking after five of her colleagues were expelled for bringing the party into disrepute.
It followed a leaked recording of a video meeting in which Kemkaran was seen shouting and swearing at other Reform councillors.
Expulsions ‘a sorry state of affairs’, Reform KCC leader, BBC
Category: They said that?
Quotes from reformer, ex-reformers, and critics.
Councillor to be investigated over ‘evil’ remark
A councillor who was heard to describe some children in care as “downright evil” is being investigated for an alleged breach of the members’ code of conduct.
Cambridgeshire County Council has confirmed an investigation into the allegation against Reform UK member Andy Osborn is taking place after a complaint was lodged.
Councillor to be investigated over ‘evil’ remark, BBC
Lammy urges Reform’s newest MP to ‘get some help’ over ‘conspiracy theories’
David Lammy has urged a Reform UK MP to “get some help” because she is “swallowing conspiracy theories”.
Sarah Pochin had asked the Foreign Secretary whether the US felt unable to use the UK-US airbase on Diego Garcia, following the Government’s deal with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands.
Responding during a statement on the Middle East, Mr Lammy said the MP for Runcorn and Helsby should “get off social media”.
[…]
Mr Lammy replied: “The honourable lady has got (to) get off social media, has got to get some help… because she is swallowing conspiracy theories that should not be repeated in this House.”
Lammy urges Reform’s newest MP to ‘get some help’ over ‘conspiracy theories’
Newly-recruited Reform councillor under fire after voicemail message branded racist
A newly-recruited Reform councillor is under fire for comments made about the Pakistani community in a voicemail left to a journalist.
On Wednesday 18 June, Councillor Andrew Barry, who is a Reform councillor for Merthyr Tydfil Council, left a voicemail seemingly in error to an ITV Wales journalist.
In it, he is having a conversation with an unknown second person about the benefits system and housing. He goes on to say: “They’re putting the immigrants in the HMOs. They’re everywhere. The problem we’ve got, no one’s interested… (Inaudible)
[…]
Newly-recruited Reform councillor under fire after voicemail message branded racist, ITV
Question about a ban on burkas from Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin “dumb”.
The unelected chair of the party stood down from his role in the party, following a row in which he called a question from a Reform MP about banning burkas “dumb”.
Zia Yusuf: Chairman of Reform UK resigns, Sky News
Political CUSTARD: IN LIMBO! Reform Run Nottinghamshire County Council Cancels Meetings And Don’t Bother Turning Up
Does reform not know how councils work that it threatens our privacy?
Kent County Councillor, Tim Prater of the Liberal Democrats, has roundly condemned Reform’s latest attempt to emulate Donald Trump.
In a letter to Kent County Council (KCC) signed by Linden Kemkaran (KCC leader for Reform), Nigel Farage, and Zia Yusuf, Reform have demanded access to all KCC data (even sensitive information about residents) for a group of unelected persons that Reform has chosen not to let the public know about.
Cllr Prater called it an “attack on Kent by Reform UK national leadership”.
This embarrassing, threatening and totally misjudged letter to Kent County Council tonight is an attack on Kent by Reform UK national leadership, countersigned by their new Kent leader who clearly doesn’t have a clue.
Anyone with the first understanding of how local Government has worked for the last 30 years knows the information they request is almost all public anyway. I suggest their highly expert DOGE team try “googling a bit”.
The rest is either subject to the same FOI constraints as apply to the public or other Councillors. To suggest there is top secret information here is nonsense on shifts, brought to you by people who have no understanding of how any public organisation in this country works. Mainly because they have never worked within local government in this country.
The irony that they have not released the “appended” list of “DOGE” representatives who should be given access to any data they imagine is interesting is not lost on us. They can ask for information on millions of Kent residents, thousands of Kent employees, but you won’t even tell us who they are?
The Lib Dems stand with Kent residents, and Kent County Council staff.
There is a process. That process includes the Council meetings your administration have cancelled at KCC over the next 3 weeks. They can ask for information in a public and democratically accountable way. You might not understand the process, but that’s your fault, not theirs.
DOGE in the USA just fell apart, having failed to find much of interest or actual saving, making a highly embarrassing series of blunders, some life threatening, and its leader Musk slamming the most recent Government bill and then quitting to spend more time with his failing business. To visit that pain on Kent is to hold us in contempt. We say no.
Liberal Democrat Cllr Tim Prater, via Facebook
Political CUSTARD: Reform Run Kent County Council Becomes Kent County Cancel In The Hands Of Ex Tory Linden Kemkaren
Farage’s numbers don’t add up
Stuart Adam, a senior economist at Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, said increasing the annual income tax allowance to £20,000 could cost between £50bn and £80bn a year, depending on the details.
“As it stands, I don’t think they’ve really set out how they would pay for such big giveaways,” he said.
“Of course they don’t have to do that yet – we’re not at a general election. But at some point, if they’re going to be a party of government, they would have to make those numbers add up.”
Stuart Adam (on Reform’s fantasy tax cuts) via BBC
Farage offers fantasy promises
Labour Party chairwoman Ellie Reeves accused Farage of “fantasy promises”, which “are exactly how Liz Truss crashed the economy”.
Ellie Reeves via BBC
Farage has shown absolutely no loyalty
Farage has shown absolutely no loyalty to hundreds of hard working party members across the country, who have dedicated themselves to building Reform up to be an election winning machine, on the contrary. he treats them with contempt, regularly casting them aside to be replaced by ‘yes men’ who are willing to display sycophantic loyalty.
Donna Edmunds (via BBC)
Reform councillor, Barry Martin, considers quitting because being a councillor is “dull and boring”
Ex-Reform councillor disliked having to watch what she says
Ms Edmunds also said she no longer has to “watch what I say” and so called for the jailed far right activist Tommy Robinson to be freed from jail, describing him as a “political prisoner”.
Donna Edmunds (Via BBC)
Reform councillors begin to quit
‘Embarrassing’ councillors
Nigel Farage hailed his party’s election success as proof that Reform had professionalised but, just a few weeks on, “the truth is beginning to emerge”, said The New European, “as newly-elected Reform councillors begin to quit, wasting tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money” on by-election costs for their replacements.
The New European via theweek.com
Reform UK criticised for candidates’ offensive posts
Reform UK is fielding local election candidates who have “posted hate, pushed far-right conspiracies and praised extremists” – despite Nigel Farage’s claim to have beefed up the party’s vetting process, campaign group Hope Not Hate has said.
Reform UK criticised for candidates’ offensive posts, BBC