James Buchan, previously a Reform councillor for Dartford Borough Council, has defected to the Conservatives, having apparently entirely lost confidence that Reform can do anything worthwhile for the people they are supposed to represent at all.
In a statement Mr Buchan added: “I stood for election with the sole aim of working for my community and getting things done for local families.
“Having had the opportunity to see Reform from the inside I’ve concluded that the party doesn’t really have the experience or ambition to do that.”
He further accused Reform UK of “relying on rhetoric and slogans, which isn’t going to help real families in communities like Stone House”.
“The more I saw of Reform, the more uncomfortable I felt to be part of it,” he added.
It sounds like he was worried that Reform’s performance was so impossibly bad that he couldn’t even sincerely tell his friends that he was acting in their best interest whilst under the control of Reform.
Kent Online goes into more detail of how as a Reform insider, Buchan came to realise quite how badly Reform were treating the vast majority of the people they claim to represent:
Slating Reform UK’s national policies, he continued: “I looked at friends, family and so many other honest, hard-working people and realised that Reform UK has a pretty unfortunate way of treating people.
“Things like a proposal to remove ‘Indefinite Leave to Remain’ from all non-EU residents who are working here perfectly legally is an example that could be devastating for decent people who have built a life here and contribute to our country.
It sounds like that as time went on he found that he’d be ashamed to be part of their cruel and incompetent administration.
“It creates a huge amount of fear and anxiety and I want to be able to look my family in the eye and say ‘that’s not who I am’.”
The Conservative council leader welcomed him into their fold, saying:
James wanted to be able to look his family and friends in the eye and tell them he has served them well, and he knows with Reform he couldn’t do that.
Lee Anderson appears to have admitted, without any shame, that in his previous job with the Citizens Advice Bureau he actively involved himself in defrauding the state in order to have it pay welfare payments to people who weren’t necessarily eligible for them.
“Before I came into politics, I worked for the Citizens Advice Bureau,” he said.
“We used to fill the form out for clients … I can tell you now, we were gaming the system.”
Mr Anderson described the process as “a competition” between the adviser and the Department for Work and Pensions.
The Reform chief whip told reporters: “I could take the fittest man in Ashfield and we could get him a 100 per cent claim on DLA”
Presumably that’s one reason why he and his ilk are so obsessed with the idea of weakening the already fragile welfare state that some people so desperately and legitimately depend on. They know that they themselves when given half a chance would greedily break the rules to get what they’re not entitled to.
But we have no evidence to suggest that the majority of Britons are as similarly devoid of ethics or morals, or are as comfortable with breaking the rules, as he is.
All we learn from this is Lee Anderson isn’t trustworthy and shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near any position of power or trust.
Reform’s increasingly infamous MP Sarah Pochin has been back making public comments about what really keeps her up at night.
For once it’s not all about spending vast sums of public money on their favourite type of flags. But nor is it the cost of living crisis, the welfare crisis, the Reform competence crisis, their desire to transfer any residual wealth from the everyday-person to the billionaires they want to make or their inability to keep any of their pre-election promises.
It is that: TV adverts have too many Black and Asian people in them for her taste.
Reform MP Sarah Pochin has hit out at “woke” adverts “full of black people”.
The Runcorn and Helsby MP said it “drives me mad” and claimed the “average white family” was no longer represented.
…
Ms Pochin was responding to a viewer on TalkTV who complained about the demographics of advertising.
The MP said the viewer was “absolutely right” and “it drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people”.
Whose fault is it? Oh, same as usual, it’s the great conspiracy of the woke apparently.
Ms Pochin blamed the situation on the “woke liberati” in the “arty-farty world”.
Anna Turley of the Labour party comments on this re-emergence on a classic complaint of the racists her comments belie:
It’s astonishing that a senior Reform MP is spending her time counting the numbers of people with a different skin colour to her on TV adverts.
Defining British people by the colour of their skin is completely unacceptable and shows once again that Reform are more interested in dividing our country than uniting it.
It’s official – two more of Reform’s councillors have been kicked out of the party.
Bill Barrett – after being demoted and suspended, he’s finally removed.
Robert Ford – after being suspended following several complaints from female members of the council’s staff.
Reform say it’s because:
…their conduct undermined the interests of the party and brought Reform UK into disrepute.
By which they are probably referring to the humiliating and widely mocked leak of a recent Reform virtual meeting – rather than the various complaints from women, allegations of bullying and incompetence that between them they’ve received at various times.
Flash forward to today, and in Reform’s dry run for running the world’s sixth largest economy, the party’s councils are finding it a lot harder than they made out.
In Nottinghamshire, the Reform county council leader banned party engagement with the Nottingham Post after completely wetting his pants over an article in the paper about … local government reorganisation.
Elsewhere, Reform have frequently shown themselves to be the free-speech warriors who love the mute button, the anti-snowflake crew who somehow constantly make complaints about bullying – and do so top to bottom. There have reportedly been eight official complaints of bullying to Reform’s south-east regional director in the past three months, while Reform’s top brass actually called the police about the mean words of Rupert Lowe (previously one of their five MPs but now suspended and independent).
Meanwhile, having honked endlessly about their Doge knock-off and all the millions in savings they would find just lying on the table when they took control, multiple Reform councils have found there aren’t any and they’re all probably going to have to raise the council tax by the maximum amount allowed.
As she says:
It’s all chaos and hypocrisy and drama, all of the time.
Reform’s only Black branch chair, Neville Watson, has quit the party on the basis that their contribution towards, in particular, the current debates around immigration are doing more harm than good, espousing anti-Christian values, weaponising people’s religious faith and damaging community cohesion.
The march in London recently, with Tommy Robinson, where the term Christian nationalism suddenly raised its head, where they were using Christian emblems to advance to me an ideology that is not Christian … I know that Nigel Farage himself has distanced himself from anything to do with the likes of Tommy Robinson, but I do know that there are still people within Reform who are quite sympathetic to his ideas.
Whether it’s Nigel banging on about the [small] boats, or Robert Jenrick talking about Handsworth, [politicians] are stoking a fire. Some might be stoking it with a smaller stick – and that type of conversation, with the boats, the [asylum] hotels, I feel it’s doing more harm than good in terms of community relations.
He himself is a Christian, but sees Reform’s sentiments and actions as being entirely anti-Christian in nature.
Politics is losing its compassion as politicians try to out-Reform Reform and I no longer feel that this is compatible with my Christian faith. I believe migration has been good for this country and that, managed properly, still could be. I’m coming from a very strong, Christian, love thy neighbour sort of perspective, and what I want to say is going to feel different from Reform. … I don’t want to see a society where we weaponise our faith against Islam. We respect our Muslim brothers and sisters.
Having entirely failed on their promise to save tax-payers’ money by cutting largely non-existent waste, Reform are now proactively pursuing spending tax-payers money by introducing their own unnecessary waste.
Exhibit A today is the Reform-led Nottinghamshire County Council. In the midst of a general local council funding crisis they have decided to install 164 – you guessed it – Union Jack flags.
This is estimated to cost an astonishing average of £457 per flag – adding up to around £75,000.
Even the traditionally flag-loving Conservative councillors in the area are appalled. Per Councillor Sam Smith:
To spend £75,000 of taxpayers’ money on putting flags up seems a bit ridiculous to me. That should be spent on services.
Their Labour colleague, Helen Faccio, agrees:
We heard when Reform came to power, that they would make council services more efficient and cut wasteful spending.
Then we hear about huge spending on flags. My residents would say we should spend money filling potholes or investing in youth clubs.
As does the local MP, Steve Yemm:
When my constituents – right across Mansfield – are contacting me about the poor state of our local roads and potholes – I am amazed that the Reform-led county council is spending our council tax in this way.
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.
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!’
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.
A big part of the pledges Reform made whilst campaigning during May’s local elections was that they would cut vast swathes of supposedly wasteful public spending, leading to lower tax for us, the citizenry.
In practice they are increasingly showing that either there was a lot less waste than they claimed – something that was self-evidently true in many cases, they’re too incompetent to clean it up, or the whole thing was a lie made up for self-interested political reasons. Or, most likely, a combination of all 3.
It is a similar story in Kent, where Nigel Farage insisted that spending was “beyond belief” and that his party was “going to save a lot of money”. Now, rather than slashing spending, plans are in place to increase council tax and ask schools to pay £2.2m more for services that are currently subsidised.
Reform are actually perfectly happy with spending more money than was the case prior to their various election victories – as long as it is on themselves.
In Lincolnshire, where former Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns pledged deep cuts after she became mayor, it is now proposed that the budget for her office should actually go up by a whopping 128%, from £115,000 to £262,000.
Whilst simultaneously failing to meet the obligations of her job in that case:
Perhaps her next purchase should be an alarm clock – in her short time as mayor, Jenkyns has missed two meetings of the Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority and been half an hour late for one.
Two Reform UK councillors have been suspended from the party “pending an investigation into their conduct”.
Northumberland County Councillors Nicole Brooke and Patrick Lambert had the “whip suspended pending investigation for breaching the Reform council group rules in a manner that could be detrimental to the party’s interests”, a statement read.
This is only a couple of weeks after their Northumberland Council colleague John Allen – another Reform councillor – was also suspended whilst under investigation for various violent, racist and homophobic social media posts.
