By Local Democracy Reporter Simon Finlay
Mystery surrounds the departure of a Reform UK councillor from his deputy cabinet role at the county’s largest local authority.
Cllr Dean Burns, who represents Ashford east, was one of 57 Reform members elected on May 1 and is now sitting as a back bencher after leaving the environment portfolio.
No official announcement has been made locally or by the party’s national head office.
But Cllr Burns was heard criticising the top table for “back-biting” in the political group at KCC in a leaked video of a virtual meeting in which the leader, Cllr Linden Kemkaran, swore and shouted at her members.
In a purge of those alleged to have brought the party into disrepute, five councillors have been expelled and two remain suspended.
It is understood that Cllr Burns was spoken to after a meeting of the Reform UK group in the Darent Room at County Hall on October 28.
In the video featuring Cllr Kemkaran swearing and shouting at her members, Cllr Burns said: “The situation as regards our group is not great.
“I’ve worked my ar*e off in my own portfolio and I’m still getting a rod up my backside all the time.
“There’s a lot of back-biting going on and it tends to be coming from the top down.”
During the fractious virtual meeting, published first by the Guardian online on October 18, Cllr Kemkaran defended her position in making decisions on local government reorganisation by telling her councillors they would have to “f**king suck it up”.
Since then, Reform UK at County Hall have endured damaging headlines, most recently when one former member threatened to sue for libel while another said she was seeking advice about an industrial tribunal after being sacked from her head office job.
Cllr Burns is still listed as the deputy cabinet member for environment on the KCC website.
He declined to comment.
Chief whip Cllr Maxwell Harrison confirmed Cllr Burns “is no longer in post” but declined to comment further.
Asked if his departure was linked to the video, Cllr Harrison would not elaborate.
One Reform back bencher said the portfolio may continue without a deputy and all the responsibilities will be shouldered by the cabinet member, Cllr David Wimble.
The councillor, who asked not to be named, added: “Someone said when this all blew up in the middle of October that ‘it’s only just begun’. They weren’t joking.
“Not many people thought it would be rumbling on nearly a month later but here we are.”
Labour group leader at KCC, Cllr Alister Brady said: “Reform has put people into positions and then removed them without explanation. Linden Kemkaran needs to explain what is going on in her administration because from the outside it looks like chaos.”
The departures have also prompted the Fire Brigades Union to speak out as it emerged that Kent and Medway Fire Authority panel was in disarray following the removal of five councillors, including its chair (Brian Black), its vice chair (Izzy Kemp, removed only this week), Robert Ford, Paul Thomas and Oliver Bradshaw.
The removal of the councillors from the Fire Authority means that Kent’s fire and rescue service Chief Executive Anne Millington has tight limits on expenditure without a body to sign off bigger spends.
The Fire Brigades Union, which represents firefighters across the UK branded the situation “a shambles and a threat to public safety”, dubbing council leader Linden Kemkaran “captain chaos”.
It said that local union reps had written to the new council leader asking for a meeting, but that no meeting had been forthcoming, nor any response to the letter received.
Of the 57 councillors returned by Reform UK at County Hall after May, only 48 remain.
This behaviour is the same as we got in Thanet when ukip were the ruling group inTDC.
Less drama and more basic governance dealing with the issues is what you are paid for.
Mrs Goodyear – have you forgotten how Labour TDC got rid of local councillors in recent times who disagreed with them! Nothing changes in politics, they are all a waste of money! The only difference is Labour will leave a broken country in their wake! I remind you of TDC loss of £1.4 million on Waste services last year and no heads have rolled.
A large proportion of the ex-reform Councillors have chosen to jump ship.
They’ve seen the writing on the wall.
Reform will only have to lose a few more, and they will no longer have an overall majority.
Generally, I vote Conservative for the Parish Council, Green for K.C.C. and I’m a floating voter nationally (T.D.C. are terrible whoever’s in charge and thankfully they’ll be history in the near future!). I don’t get this “One Party fits All” mentality that so many have.
That’s reasonable enough. As I have stated Reform’s orientation is towards angry 65+ voters.Why they are angry differs between individuals, which is why are finding it difficult to come to a consensus.
What they don’t like is being told what to do by centrally recruited leaders, and by the rest of us telling them they are racist, even though much of what they say has racial overtones.
They believe, wrongly, in my view that immigration can be ‘sorted’ easily, by mass deportations,but even if that were true, Britain would not cease to be broken.
So, we will continue to see comical councils,protests, dysfunction, and division.
What might help is a determination to fix things by govt, corporations and individuals cooperating, instead of always working in silos.
I’ve 3 years to go yet!
May I remind you Fed up that Reform started with an overwhelming number of Cllrs, if not an electoral mandate. Since then it has been a comedy of unforced errors on their part.They haven’t got the Mail or Telegraph on their backs, badgering them, in fact they even have the backing of the US govt, which is more than the BBC and HMG can say.
You know two wrongs don’t make a right.Labour has fallings out all the time, so does each an every party.One thing that distinguishes Someone like Rick Everitt from Linden Kemkaran is reasonability. The Reform leader believes its her way or no way,where most other parties,Badenoch probably excepted, have internal rows and feuds, but they keep it to them selves. Sharon Goodyer is right, especially as every week someone at Reform is cast aside.
May I also remind you that TDC always loses money, because it’s carrying out a public service, or at least is meant to, so it is reasonable to look into waste services budget and I am sure they will.If you are not happy contact the local govt ombudsman and make your allegations to them.
Mr Nokes – I do not need reminders from you of all people regarding my views and opinions. You need to enter the real world . As for your reminder that TDC always loses money, what a sad statement. In my working life as a project manager, I would not have lasted one contract if I oversaw such a loss and probably would never worked in my field again!
I am afraid you do, and your tone and rhetoric betray your lack of critical analysis.I hear this stuff about the real world constantly, mainly from people who want the real world to be the one that existed in the 1950’s.
Far from excusing TDC, I want them gone, along with National highways,the water companies and others like them.
I would remind you that some of the worst market failures belong to the banking and financial sector, who were also responsible for the catastrophe at Thames Water.So yes Fed up, I will remind you constantly when you try to excuse tge stupidity at A Reform KCC by somehow equivicating something that the pointless TDC might have done.2 wrongs don’t make a right period!
Mr Nokes – what rhetoric are you on about! Your ramblings are becoming a worry! I do not need reminders from you, thank you. .
They failed miserably running a local authority, they are a laughing stock in county. God help us if they ever get governance of the country.
People laugh at Reform, and cry over Labour (including many of their own MPs!). Both parties are making The Conservatives look more and more attractive, even if they’re not quite convinced by Kemi.
Wouldn’t go that far, lib dem maybe, even if their leader is an attention seeker.
Being a not angry over 65 year old, I am not a Reform supporter. They are fag packet policy chaos. I vote in every election for the party that will cause the least damage to us here in Thanet and in the general country. I am not a permanent supporter of any party. Thanet has been led by money wasters all my time here. There is always money wasted on reviews of this or that. Ramsgate harbour has had a few reviews as to its use over the years costing thousands of pounds. Just an example. Failed regeneration here and there. Thanet will never improve until the cost of living and housing issues are felt with. Reform will never do that. KCC are a disgrace and after this idiots will still vote for them.
Whichever party is on power, something Thanet desperately needs are JOBS!
Agreed, build on that disued multiple times failed airfield. Keep people in employment for years.
If it’s not an airport, then it should be a huge migrant camp. That would create lots of jobs.
All this is true, but to get jobs, the real jobs everyone wants, you need real education and training.There are too many out there with no skills, no prospects, and no life chances.It’s not true that the working class do not have aspirations , it’s just that those aspirations are met with a wall of indifference and educational elitism.
We need factories.
Mr Nokes. – real education is available to all but only if you desire it and apply yourself to learning! Unfortunately, so many of today’s youth want everything on a plate/free with hardly any application/input themselves.
im seelf-ejakated.
Yes, but not screw driver pods, that chase subsidies and close at a drop of a hat.Catapillar were notorious for following the money.