Reform UK suspends four Kent councillors after leaked video

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Reform UK has suspended four of its Kent councillors after a video was leaked of the council’s leader telling her colleagues to “suck it up”.

Councillors Paul Thomas, Oliver Bradshaw, Bill Barrett and Maxine Fothergill have all had the whip suspended pending investigation “following evidence that they brought the party into disrepute”, the party said on Monday.

The move follows the publication by the Guardian of a video of a private online meeting between Reform councillors, indicating bitter infighting among the council’s lead group.

In the video, the council’s leader Linden Kemkaran could be seen telling councillors, in relation to policy decisions, “you’re just going to have to fucking suck it up”. 

“Let’s not forget, we are the shop window at KCC,” she added of Kent county council, which she referred to as the party’s “flagship council”.

In response Thomas could be heard questioning whether the council has the “right leader and the right cabinet”. 

Kemkaran later muted him. Subsequently the BBC reported that she had told colleagues she had passed her “suspicions of who is responsible for this treachery to head office”.

A Reform council spokesperson said on Monday: “Cllrs 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.”

The party did not give any further detail on the evidence.

The leaked video comes as Kent and the other nine councils in which Reform secured a majority in May’s local elections are increasingly under the spotlight over next year’s budget process.

Reform had promised council tax cuts and a swift rooting-out of waste across during May’s election campaign, but has so far revealed few major savings in any of its local authorities. 

Its councils are now also weighing whether to put up council tax despite Reform’s election pledges, due to the severe pressure local government finances are under. 

Two figures familiar with the Kent situation said that a meeting on Monday of an appeals panel, intended to allow parents who have not been granted home-to-school transport funding to argue their case, had been thrown into chaos as a result of the suspensions. Fothergill and Thomas are both members of the five-strong panel.