A few days ago we got an insight into Reform’s chaotic and dictatorial leadership of their “flagship” council, Kent, following the leak of a recording of a meeting several of their councillors attended.
From the Guardian
Bitter divisions in Reform UK’s flagship county council have been laid bare in a leaked video of a chaotic internal meeting where members were told to “fucking suck it up” if they did not agree with decisions.
Councillors can be seen complaining about “backbiting” and being ignored by their leader, Linden Kemkaran, who tells them they will be “screwed” and that Reform can forget about winning the general election if they don’t balance Kent’s budget.
In an extraordinary recording, which shows the inner workings of Reform’s Kent operation, Kemkaran shouts down fellow members before telling them they will be “muted” in scenes reminiscent of the viral “Jackie Weaver” video from a parish council Zoom meeting in 2021.
Perhaps the conflict is not all that surprising given Reform’s own opinion of Reform’s leadership in that area:
However, claims have also been made that a culture of abuse and bullying is causing deep splits in the Reform group. The Guardian has been told there have been around eight official complaints to Reform’s south-east regional director in the last three months.
With some questioning her leadership entirely:
The comments sparked dissent from councillors at the meeting, which took place in late August.
Councillor Paul Thomas complained that Reform backbenchers were not being briefed on LGR plans by Kemkaran and other members of the council leadership, adding: “Then, quite frankly, the question is: is that the right leader and the right cabinet?”
Arguments also broke out over a plan by Kemkaran to keep her increasingly unhappy councillors informed through a scheme under which cabinet members would each ‘mentor’ four councillors chosen at random.
“Let’s face it, the situation within the group is not great at the moment,” said another councillor, Dean Burns. “I work my arse off in my own portfolio and I am still getting a rod up my backside every time.”
“There is a lot of backbiting going on and that tends to come from the top down,” he added
The Daily Mail shares a few more choice snippets, including that Linden Kemkaran wishes that she could follow Nigel Farage’s example and go on holiday rather than try to fulfill the promises she made to the electorate:
Linden then warns another councillor who she argues keeps talking over her: ‘PAUL! Paul, I’m going to mute you in a minute! Let me reply!’ before muting them.
She continues: ‘Of course it’s easier when it’s face to face! I’m meant to be going on bloody holiday this week, Paul! I don’t want to be having this meeting!’
One councillor went so far as to say to the Guardian that
Many of us are now despairing of this situation and feel it cannot continue any longer.
Some of the other parties represented within Kent Council are obviously unimpressed by both the attitudes revealed in this meeting, along with Reform’s continued and widespread inability to actually deliver on any of their promises:
Labour and the Liberal Democrats, who make up the largest opposition party on the council, said Reform’s flagship council was “descending into chaos”.
Antony Hook, the Liberal Democrat leader of the opposition in Kent, described the recording of the meeting as “truly shocking”.
“It reveals the Reform administration to be taking decisions and making plans based on party advantage rather than interests of the public. The recording also reveals the leader of the council speaking to her colleagues abusively and unprofessionally, in ways that would rightly not be tolerated in most workplaces,” he said.
A Labour party spokesperson said: “Last week, the council confirmed that despite promising to cut waste and deliver savings, they haven’t come close. And now it appears that Reform politicians in Kent are more interested in fighting amongst themselves than working in the interests of their constituents.”
The Reform council leader involved, Linden Kemkaran, has since launched a hunt for whoever leaked the video, describing it as the work of “cowards” committing an act of “treachery”.
The people who did this are cowards. They are weak. They are foolish. They are incapable of displaying true courage themselves, so they look to harm those who are. They are obsessed with personal gain at the expense of group success. They cannot cope with disappointment and personal inadequacies so they seek to bring down others to their level.
…
I want you to know … I passed my suspicions of who is responsible for this treachery to head office and a thorough investigation is already under way. The guilty parties will be expelled from the Reform party without delay. They will have no political future.
It’s already led to four of Reform’s councillors in Kent being suspended:
Councillors Paul Thomas, Oliver Bradshaw, Bill Barrett and Maxine Fothergill have had the whip suspended pending investigation, following evidence that they brought the party into disrepute,
Which means that a total of 7 of the Reform councillors elected to Kent Council no longer retain the whip:
The suspensions now mean that, from winning 57 seats in elections in May, Reform has 50 councillors with the whip. Two other councillors had been suspended while a third joined Ukip.
Making the actual job of running the council harder than it needs to be:
The “chaos” on the Reform group was now having a direct impact on Kent constituents in need, warned Antony Hook, the leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the council.
He said a council committee that would have been involved in school transport issues and which was due to take place on Wednesday has been cancelled as a result of the suspensions.
“This potentially means a child or children delayed in getting school transport granted,” he said.
Says Mr Hook:
“We learned in the leaked video that they have no respect for each other, let alone respect for the public. Now they are turning on each other.”
Sojan Joseph, a local MP for Labour agrees, describing them as an “absolute shambles”:
They’ve not even made it until Christmas – Doge didn’t work. Council tax is rising, and now they’re having to suspend multiple councillors
Louie French, a local Conservative MP makes the valid point that Reform’s chaos in council should be a lesson to us for their future ability to govern:
Reform promised Kent residents the world in May. Six months later they are in complete chaos, with residents facing the prospect of even higher bills. A serious warning to the rest of the UK of what Reform in power looks like
In the mean time, the leader, Linden Kemkaran, is trying to get what remains of Reform’s Kent County Council representatives to pledge personal allegiance to her. She wants them all to sign a obsequiously self-serving written statement “in support of the leadership”, meaning her, which includes the following:
During the hustings and subsequent vote for a group leader on May 8, 2025, Linden won overwhelmingly because we could see that she was the best person for the job.
…
But Linden rose to the challenge without hesitation. She has the opposition firmly on the run and under her guidance, Reform UK members are flourishing in their roles.
Whether or not they will bow to her demands to prostrate themselves in front of a demonstrably incompetent leadership I do not know.