Three more members of Reform UK’s "flagship" Kent County Council have been expelled for "dishonest and deceptive behaviour" following a leaked video meeting.
The party had taken control of KCC in May, winning 57 of 81 seats and overturning a 30-year Tory majority.
However, ongoing suspensions and removals mean fewer than 50 Reform councillors remain at KCC. This latest action follows four suspensions after footage of an online meeting in which KCC leader Linden Kemkaran could be seen berating backbench councillors when they questioned her was leaked to the press on Saturday.
Three of those councillors: Bill Barrett, Oliver Bradshaw and Paul Thomas, along with another councillor, Brian Black, have now been kicked out of Reform UK following investigations.
A party spokesperson said: “At the request of the leader of Kent County Council, cllr Black and cllr Thomas were invited to meet with officials from Reform HQ in order to find a way forward for all involved.
“Following this meeting, a decision has been made to expel cllr Black, cllr Thomas and cllr Bradshaw from the party after they displayed a lack of integrity.
“These individuals have shown a pattern of dishonest and deceptive behaviour which the party will not tolerate from its elected officials.”
Last week, Mr Barrett and another councillor, Robert Ford, were kicked out by email from Reform HQ which said they had “undermined” the interests of the party and brought it into “disrepute”.
Mr Barrett was suspended after the video leak while Mr Ford faced allegations of misconduct following an “unofficial complaint” from several female members of KCC staff.
In the leaked video, Ms Kemkaran said: “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 f****** suck it up.”
Cllr Kemkaran warned those voicing dissent that they would be “screwed”, and that Reform would not be able to win a general election, if they failed to balance Kent’s budget.
In the chaotic recording, obtained by The Guardian, she allegedly shouted down fellow councillors and threatened them with being “muted”, prompting comparisons with the notorious “Jackie Weaver” parish council Zoom meeting, footage of which went viral during the pandemic.
With a budget of more than £2.5 billion, Ms Kemkaran also called the council a “shop window” for what Reform could do if it ran the country.
“Let’s not forget, we are the shop window in KCC. People are looking at us, they are judging us every single minute of every single day. Nigel knows that. He is super aware that we are the flagship council,” Ms Kemkaran told her colleagues.
Kent is one of the 10 councils Reform took control of in a stunning set of local election victories in May, with the party vowing to cut wasteful spending and reduce council tax bills.
But, despite rolling out its Elon Musk-inspired Department of Local Government Efficiency (Dolge) unit in the council, Kent’s Reform leaders are still set to hike council tax rates next year.
Labour said the leaked footage showed that a government run by Nigel Farage would be “complete chaos”, while the Liberal Democrats said the meeting looked “more like an episode of The Traitors than the running of a major council”.
Cllr Kemkaran, who oversees the £2.5bn council budget, told the meeting: “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 added: “If we can avoid putting up council tax by the full 5 per cent, 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.”
There have been rumours of a split among Kent’s Reform councillors since the party took control of the local authority.
However, the turmoil in Reform’s local operation is not isolated to Kent Council, with the BBC reporting on Tuesday that five of the party’s councillors on Cornwall Council left the party to form a new Cornish Independent Non-Aligned Group on the authority.
In claims that have been denied by Reform, they said they faced "friction" as they tried to balance the national party's priorities with the interests of Cornish residents.
A Reform UK source said: “These claims are untrue. Reform UK councillors have complete autonomy to take a stand on local issues and are encouraged to come up with solutions to improve their communities.
“However, voters are right to expect their elected Reform UK representatives to remember the platform they were elected on, which includes opposing the Net Zero agenda and ensuring taxpayer funds are spent on local people, not illegal migrants.”
The Independent has contacted the suspended or removed councillors for comment.
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