When Reform UK swept to power in Kent at the local elections this year, Nigel Farage arrived in the county by helicopter for a victory party marked by champagne and fireworks.
Just over 25 weeks on from what the Reform leader described as one of the most significant days of his career, the sparks flying are of a very different kind.
Farage has returned to national campaigning and left the running of Kent county council and its £2.5bn annual budget to its newly installed leader, the combative former journalist and ex-Tory Linden Kemkaran.
Last week the Guardian published a recording of an incendiary meeting in which she told dissenting colleagues they had to “fucking suck it up” if they didn’t like her decisions.
The leak precipitated a wave of recriminations, four councillors were suspended and the party issued “oaths of loyalty” to its councillors in an attempt to flush out those who the deputy leader, Richard Tice, accused of “treachery”.
Farage has been silent on the row, preferring to dedicate time this week to speaking at a cryptocurrency conference and campaigning in the Caerphilly Senedd byelection, where Reform came second despite leading in opinion polls before the vote.
But all is not well in Kent, and what was hailed as a “shop window” for the insurgent party to prove its governing prowess, is descending into factionalism, farce and chaos in the Reform-run garden of England.
One immediate consequence of the row was felt by a committee preparing to adjudicate on appeals by at least seven families who say they need supported school transport for their children.
The session had to be cancelled on Wednesday because the chair, Maxine Fothergill, and another member, Paul Thomas, were among those suspended by Kemkaran.
Thomas had featured in the leaked footage as a councillor who clashed with the leader over her decision-making, resulting in him being muted. A Reform UK spokesperson said the committee meeting was cancelled because it was not quorate.
Kemkaran may have been able to mute her critics in the testy online meeting, but in the real world her detractors may not be so easy to dismiss and moves against her authority have already begun.
The Guardian has also learned that Kemkaran failed to ensure that her register of interests listed the fact that her husband is the director of digital transformation at East Kent’s health authority.
The omission from her declaration of interests was only corrected at the end of September after it was highlighted by an official. Kemkaran refused to take responsibility for the omission, with a Reform spokesperson referring to a statement by council officials blaming an “administrative oversight”.
This late amendment has not washed with opposition politicians, who are calling for her to resign. Kent county council has key connections with the NHS through a range of partnerships.
Mark Ellis, the chief whip for the Liberal Democrats on the council, said: “It is surprising in the extreme that Ms Kemkaran did not declare her husband’s senior role in the NHS until four months after her election, and after a concern was raised by a member of our integrated care board.
“She is putting party interest ahead of the public, using grossly unprofessional language towards her own colleagues, and losing a number of councillors in just six months.”
A council spokesperson blamed an “administrative oversight” for the omission, saying Kemkaran had raised the employment situation during her induction “but through no fault on her part, it wasn’t recorded on the system”. The Lib Dems say this is not right and that all councillors know it is their responsibility to fill in forms correctly.
Kemkaran’s attempts to exert control over Reform councillors after the suspensions, by asking for her group to sign an “oath of loyalty” to her, also appear to stalling. After 57 Reform councillors were elected earlier this year, numbers are down to 50 after the four suspensions, two others and a defection by one councillor to the UK Independence party.
One source in the Reform group said that by Wednesday night Kemkaran only had 37 signatories to her loyalty pledge. The remainder were said to be waiting for the findings of a disciplinary panel into the conduct of Thomas and Fothergill, along with Bill Barrett and Oliver Bradshaw. A fifth councillor, Robert Ford, who was suspended last week for alleged lewd behaviour, is still awaiting his panel outcome.
Meanwhile, the day-to-day business of running what is England’s second largest council by population does not stop.
The clock is ticking on the two major challenges facing Kemkaran and her team: one is local government changes driven from Whitehall that could ultimately lead to the dissolution of Kent county council. The other is Kent’s need to meet its statutory obligations to balance its £2.5bn annual budget.
A central government recalculation on council tax could means Kent is among the local authorities with extra wriggle room in the coming years. Even so, a senior member of Reform’s Kent team let slip earlier this month that rates may have to rise by the maximum of 5%.
This would fly in the face of the promises to actually cut council tax that appeared on Reform leaflets during the local elections. Quite whether the voters of Kent will be willing, in the words of the council leader, to “suck it up” remains to be seen.
