Nigel Farage’s flagship council quietly sold Two Stones, one of the sculptor’s earliest commissions, as part of a wave of publicly owned art disposals that critics call “shameful”
Reform-run Kent County Council has sold off a work of public art by one of Britain’s most respected sculptors, Antony Gormley.
Gormley’s ‘Two Stones’ was hosted outside the Kent History and Library Centre in Maidstone until a few days ago.
The work was one of Gormley’s first commissions. The renowned artist studied and later taught at the Maidstone School of Art.
Kent County Council has declared an “illegal migration emergency” after opposition councillors walked out of a debate in protest.
The authority passed a motion, put forward by Reform UK councillors, stating that the county was a “frontier for the influx of illegal migrants” and residents were “dealing with the consequences”.
Other parties chose to leave the chamber ahead of the vote, claiming the debate breached electoral rules ahead of a by-election for the Cliftonville ward, with Liberal Democrat group leader Antony Hook stating that the motion was “based on prejudicial, discriminatory assumptions”.
For nearly ten months now, the residents of Cliftonville have been throwing away hard earned taxes, on an elected representative that deceived them from the start.
Reform UK relentlessly sold Taylor to Cliftonville as a ‘devoted family man’ without bothering to properly look into his background. But as we all know now, this is no isolated incident.
Embattled Reform UK council leader Linden Kemkaran has broken her silence over a leaked video of her swearing and shouting at members which has plunged her administration into crisis.
The leader of Reform UK-run Kent County Council has described the suspensions and expulsions of councillors from her party as “a sorry state of affairs”.
Linden Kemkaran was speaking after five of her colleagues were expelled for bringing the party into disrepute.
It followed a leaked recording of a video meeting in which Kemkaran was seen shouting and swearing at other Reform councillors.
The problems that the council is facing suggests Nigel Farage’s party is far from ready to exercise power
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For Reform, east of Edenbridge became an Eden; during a fractious internal party meeting during which council members attempted to discuss the budget, leaked by councillors, leader of the council Linden Kemkaran said: “We are a shop window. People are judging us every single minute of every single day – Nigel knows that, he is super aware that we are the flagship council.”
But like Eden, not everyone is capable of indefinitely living in paradise. Four members were initially suspended under suspicion of leaking the video, and five have now been removed from the party for bringing it into “disrepute” and displaying a “lack of integrity”.
Robert Ford, subject of an ‘unofficial complaint’, and Bill Barrett, suspended after leaked meeting, removed via email
Two suspended Reform UK councillors from Kent have been expelled from the party over a misconduct allegation and after the Guardian published a leaked video which revealed tensions among its county council ranks.
Robert Ford and Bill Barrett were removed from the party via an email from Reform HQ on Monday, which said they had “undermined” the interests of the party and brought it into “disrepute”.
Ford and Barrett sat on Kent county council alongside Oliver Bradshaw, Paul Thomas and Maxine Fothergill, who were also suspended last week. The Guardian understands Thomas, Bradshaw and Fothergill remain suspended pending investigation.
Reform UK has expelled another three county councillors from the party this afternoon alleging “a pattern of dishonest and deceptive behaviour”.
The dismissals of Cllrs Brian Black, Paul Thomas and Oliver Bradshaw brings to five the number of expulsions from the Kent County Council group in the past four days.
The party’s performance in Kent shows it is nowhere near ready for government
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Antony Hook, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Kent, says Reform was convinced they could make large savings from cutting the county’s budget on asylum seekers.
“They were really fixated on it. Every question they’d ask would be about the cost of asylum. We kept explaining that KCC doesn’t have that large a role in that and how it’s mainly a Home Office expense.
“We tried to explain that the big problem is adult social care, but they would just say: ‘What about asylum?’
“This is where reality has now collided with ideology. They said they’d take their chainsaw to a forest of waste. But the chainsaw seems to have been made out of sponge, and rather than a forest they’ve found an open field where there’s nothing to use it on.”
Firms led by deputy Reform UK leader since 2011 have shown commitment to saving energy and cutting CO2 emissions
He never seems to tire of deriding “net stupid zero”, but Reform UK’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, has a 15-year business record of support for sustainability and green energy initiatives.
The Reform party has made opposition to green energy and net zero part of its policy platform. Its founder, Nigel Farage, has called net zero policies a “lunacy”; the party has called to lift the ban on fracking for fossil gas; and one of the first Reform-led councils, Kent, rescinded last month its declaration of a climate emergency.
Kent becomes latest local authority controlled by Nigel Farage’s party to signal intention to raise council tax
A Reform UK-run council where the party sought to pilot drastic cost-cutting plans is going to have to raise council tax, a cabinet member has admitted.
Services at Kent county council were already “down to the bare bones”, said Reform’s cabinet member for adult social care, Diane Morton. It makes Kent the latest local authority controlled by Nigel Farage’s party to signal its intention to raise council tax.
Leaders say proposals fly in face of pre-election pledges to identify efficiencies and savings from Musk-style DOGE unit
Reform UK-run Kent council plans to raid £2 million from schools’ already-squeezed budgets to pay for vital services it can no longer afford, sparking fears of more classroom cuts.
Leaders say the proposals fly in the face of Reform’s pre-election pledges to identify efficiencies and savings through a pilot of its own Elon Musk-style DOGE unit.
The party also admitted this week it’s likely to hike council tax charges for its residents.
A Reform UK county councillor in Kent has defected to UKIP, it has been announced.
Amelia Randall, who serves the Birchington & Rural division in Thanet, has left the party four months after being elected.
A Reform UK spokesperson said: “We remain committed to our mission of delivering for our residents and ensuring Nigel Farage becomes Britain’s next Prime Minister.”
Opposition leader at Kent County Council, Antony Hook, has called for Randall to resign and a by-election to be called.
He said: “She should resign so that Birchington residents can make a fresh choice about who they want to represent them.”
Reform UK is mounting an Elon Musk-inspired bid to slash state “waste.” The fireworks have already begun.
MAIDSTONE, England — Half an hour into a Kent County Council meeting, council leader Linden Kemkaran has already taken aim at trans women in a “wig and a skirt” and migrants “invading” Britain.
This is the Garden of England — home to farmers, commuters, vineyards, seaside poverty, rich London escapees, and the beaches where tens of thousands of migrants have landed in inflatable dinghies — and it now belongs to Reform UK.
Holding office in local government is a poisoned chalice for a party that bases its electoral appeal around issues where it has no power whatsoever, argues NICK WRIGHT
For two months after Reform UK took over the council the council failed to conduct business, subcommittees were cancelled, Reform UK councillors failed to sign their declaration of acceptance of office, others failed to complete their register of interests and the planning committee’s work was on hold after half the Reform UK members failed to turn up for their statutory training that qualifies them to take planning decisions.
Inviting failed candidates to try again under lax rules suggests that they are either struggling to recruit candidates, or something more sinister.
Reform UK has told its members in Kent it will relax vetting rules, and is ‘strongly’ encouraging prospective candidates who previously failed vetting to reapply.
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The move to water down the party’s vetting process comes despite ongoing candidate scandals. Daniel Taylor, a Reform councillor in Thanet, was recently charged with threatening to kill his wife. Reform withdrew the whip after he was charged.
Kent County Council, led by the Reform UK party, has announced the removal of all books featuring transgender themes from the children’s sections of its libraries—a move that has sparked significant backlash and concern.
The council’s leader, Linden Kemkaran, revealed the decision via X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, 2 July. “Another victory for #commonsenseinKent,” she wrote. “My brilliant cabinet member Cllr Paul Webb has just got this trans material REMOVED from the children’s sections of all Kent’s libraries. Telling children they’re in the ‘wrong body’ is wrong and simply unacceptable.”
The announcement did not include details on which specific titles or materials were removed, nor how many books are affected. Kent County Council oversees 99 community libraries and operates five mobile library vans.
Antony Hook, the Liberal Democrat opposition leader in the council, criticised the announcement as both “vague” and “bizarre”, particularly as it was made on social media rather than through formal council channels. Hook has formally written to the head of Kent Library Services seeking clarification on what materials are being removed.
Reform UK’s new administration at Kent County Council has replaced its first cabinet member less than seven weeks into the job.
Cllr Bill Barrett, who represents the Ashford Rural South division, stepped down from his place at the top table where he was in charge of highways and transport.
This hot in from the Reform UK Kent DOLTS (Department Of Looking Terminally Stupid) team, presumably the first outcome of their clever, clever AI deep dive into the top secret numbers from their interrogation on Monday.
Except it’s no such thing. This is a direct read from a KCC report to KCC Audit Committee in May 2024 (so it’s over a year old, talking about older things) which Kent’s processes and audit found, reported, made public, discussed and sought to improve.
Paul Webb said he ensured books and material were pulled from children’s section of Kent libraries, but it emerges they were never there
A boast by a Reform UK councillor that he ensured the removal of “trans-ideological material and books” from the children’s section of his county’s libraries has fallen flat after it emerged that no such material ever existed there.
A council leader has been criticised after claiming the authority had removed transgender-related books from the children’s sections of its libraries.
In a post on social media, Kent County Council’s Reform UK leader Linden Kemkaran said the books were to be removed with immediate effect in a “victory for common sense in Kent”.
However, the council said a single transgender-related book aimed at adults was relocated from a display at the entrance of a library to a section unlikely to be visited by children.
Labour MP for Chatham and Aylesford Tristian Osbourne has called the alleged removal of the books “unedifying gender baiting of the LGBT community”.
Reform UK have warned their Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) unit “will take as long as it takes” to provide recommendations.
On Monday the Doge team arrived at Kent County Council (KCC) in Maidstone for their first meeting.
Party chairman Zia Yusuf met leader Linden Kemkaran along with senior staff, accompanied by millionaire party backer Arron Banks and Nathaniel Fried, a tech entrepreneur said to be leading the Doge unit.
The party plans to use artificial intelligence, advanced data analysis tools and forensic auditing techniques to “identify wasteful spending and recommend actionable solutions”.
The Lib Dems have accused Reform UK of causing ‘paralysis’ at Kent Council, after the party cancelled multiple scrutiny meetings this month.
The Reform-run council held its first full county council meeting on 22 May, when it elected its new leader and appointed a cabinet. Since then, Reform has cancelled or postponed several scheduled committee meetings.
Nigel Farage’s party took 57 out of 81 Kent County Council seats at the local elections on 1 May.
Folkestone and Hythe Lib Dems said in a statement that Reform has also yet to confirm which, if any, scrutiny committees will be formed.
The statement said: “For the first three weeks of June, there were FIVE committee meetings timetabled. FOUR have been cancelled.”
Reform has cancelled committee meetings on topics including health, planning, and governance so far.
Reform-run Kent County Council will not fly a Pride flag this summer and will remove the Ukrainian flag from the chamber, the new council leader confirmed.
At the beginning of May, Reform swept to a local elections victory in Kent taking 57 of 81 council seats, wiping out a Conservative majority which had stood for almost 30 years.
On Thursday, councillors heard from the new leader of Kent County Council, Linden Kemkaran, at their annual general meeting at County Hall in Maidstone.
Ms Kemkaran, Kent’s Reform leader, told the chamber her new administration had little time for “special interest groups” or the flags that represent them.
Reform UK presided over its first full Kent County Council (KCC) meeting last week, with the new leader announcing a cut in councillor allowances and a special post for finding savings.
On a morning dominated by frequent applause and table thumping by Reform’s members, KCC’s new leader Linden Kemkaran said she regarded her new role as a “privilege”.
But she pledged to look at every area of spending at the authority with the creation of a department of local government efficiency (DOLGE) and proposed to cut member allowances by 5%.
Reform promised much to voters and now runs £8bn worth of public services. After three weeks, what has party accomplished?
When Nigel Farage held a victory lap of England after his mammoth local elections win on 1 May, he was characteristically bullish about Reform UK’s plan to shake up town halls.
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Yet three weeks into power in nine of England’s cash-starved local authorities – where Reform UK now runs £8bn worth of public services – Farage’s “Reform-quake” has been limited to smaller but symbolic acts of the “war on woke”.
In Kent and Durham, councils with a combined £1bn of debt, one of Reform’s first acts was to take down the Ukrainian flag – hoisted to show solidarity with the war-besieged nation – and vowed not to fly rainbow-coloured flags in support of LGBTQ+ residents.
