Reform have suspended four councillors on Kent County Council after a leaked video from a meeting showed sweary, bitter infighting.
Over the weekend, the Guardian published footage from a virtual council meeting in which leader Linden Kemkaren told councillors to “fucking suck it up” if they did not agree with proposed cuts designed to avoid putting up council tax.
In the video, other councillors complained about “backbiting” and being ignored by Kemkaren.
The video was published by the Guardian on Saturday 18 October. Just two days later, a spokesperson for Reform said four councillors – Paul Thomas, Oliver Bradshaw, Bill Barrett and Maxine Fothergill – on Kent County Council had been suspended.
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The spokesperson said the councillors had the whip suspended “following evidence that they brought the party into disrepute.”
When asked by the BBC, Kemkaren refused to say whether the suspensions were connected the leaked video.
After winning 57 seats on the council in May’s local elections, Reform now has 50 councillors with the whip. Two other councillors were already suspended and a third joined UKIP.
This month, it was reported that the Reform-led Kent council would be forced to raise council tax, just months after coming to power and proudly claiming they would make huge savings with an Elon Musk-inspired government efficiency body.
In the leaked video from the weekend, Kemkaren said Reform would be “screwed” if they could not make savings to avoid having to raise council tax.
She told councillors that Kent County Council was the “shop window” to prove that Reform can govern.
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“If we can avoid putting up council tax by the full 5%, that is going to be the best thing we can do to show that Reform can actually run something as big as Kent County Council,” she said.
A source told the Guardian the four suspended councillors have been removed with “no firm evidence” and that it was “panic stations” on the council for Reform.
They said a vote of no confidence in Kemkaran was being readied for early in November.