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.
Kent county council, which has a £2.5bn annual budget and is one of 10 where Nigel Farage’s party has outright control, is considered to be a make or break showcase for whether Reform can be trusted to competently govern before a general election.
It faces two major challenges: the need to meet a legal duty to balance its budget, with resulting questions over whether Reform will have to hike council tax; the other centres on its response to national plans for local government reform (LGR) that would result in Kent’s councils in effect abolishing themselves.
However, claims have also been made that a culture of abuse an 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.
While Reform had 56 councillors elected to Kent county council, one of them has joined Ukip while another was removed from a cabinet position amid a row. At least one more was recently suspended among allegations about their behaviour.
At the start of the video, Kemkaran said: “Because I am not a dictator or an autocrat I like feedback, I like to discuss. I like to hear what everybody thinks. However, when it comes to making the really big decisions, and LGR is one of those … Sometimes I will make a decision that might not be liked by everybody in the group. But I am afraid you are just going to have to fucking suck it up.”
Linden Kemkaran: ‘Sometimes I will make a decision that might not be liked by everybody in the group. But I am afraid you are just going to have to fucking suck it up.’ Photograph: The Guardian
Open-mouthed councillors were left visibly shocked at the comment, which presaged a meeting at which Kemkaran later muted one to stop him from speaking.
“We are going to live or die on that budget. If we don’t balance the books you can forget Reform winning the next election. It’s that crucial,” she told them.
“If we can avoid putting up council tax by the full 5% that is going to be the best thing that we can do to show that Reform can actually run something as big as Kent council, because let’s not forget we are the shop window in KCC. People are looking at us, they are judging us every single day, every single minute of every single day. Nigel knows that. He is super aware that we are the flagship council.”
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.”
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“There is a lot of backbiting going on and that tends to come from the top down,” he added, making a plea to be able to choose who his mentor was. Kemkaran replied: “I’ll think about it.”
Later in the meeting, Kemkaran complained about other council leaders in Kent who she had been meeting recent weeks, accusing them of a “shocking” level of ignorance about the coming LGR plans and suggesting that they did not like her because she was a woman.
She also referred to proposals being developed by consultants at KPMG for Kent and other councils in response to the government’s LGR plans, as well as an alternative commissioned by Reform.
“It has the potential to completely stuff the process because it will score very highly on all the government’s scoring methodologies, but they won’t want it to succeed. In a way, it’s the cleverest way of putting a spoke in the works but still being part of the process.”
Other councillors appeared to be confused by the strategy, with Kemkaran saying: “If we fuck this up in Kent and get confused over LGR and pull KCC out of the decision-making process and something is done and KCC wasn’t at the table, that is going to look really bad.”
“We need to keep resolutely focused on balancing this budget and showing we can run a council without us all fighting like rats in a sack.”
Reform won 56 seats on Kent county council, but one member has defected to Ukip, another was sacked from the cabinet and at least one suspended over allegations about their behaviour. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA
Reform councillors who spoke to the Guardian were reluctant to go on the record. However, one said: “Many of us are now despairing of this situation and feel it cannot continue any longer.”
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.”
A Reform UK Kent spokesperson said: “The Reform administration in Kent is united behind our election pledge to deliver value for money and fix 30 years of Conservative mismanagement.
“In just five months, we have made tens of millions of pounds’ worth of savings, made serious inroads towards reducing the authority’s debt and we are changing the practices of Kent county council to ensure that every pound spent represents best value for the taxpayer.”
