Reform UK Suspends Four Councillors After Leaked Video

Reform UK has suspended four of its councillors on Kent County Council after a leaked video of a virtual council meeting. The footage, which surfaced in The Guardian, showed council leader Linden Kemkaran shouting at colleagues during the meeting and telling them to “fucking suck it up” if they didn’t agree with her.

The clip appears to have been recorded in late August, and features councillors complaining about being ignored and excluded from key decisions, and being frustrated over local government reorganisation plans. Kemkaran’s blunt delivery only escalated tensions.

The party confirmed on Monday that Councillors Paul Thomas, Oliver Bradshaw, Bill Barrett, and Maxine Fothergill have had the whip suspended pending an investigation. A Reform UK spokesperson said there was “evidence that they brought the party into disrepute.”

The suspensions follow internal conflict aired in the leaked clip, where councillor Thomas pushed back on Kemkaran’s handling of plans for reorganising Kent’s 14 councils into larger unitary authorities.

“You keep laughing your head off mate,” Thomas told deputy leader Brian Collins during the meeting, which also featured Kemkaran threatening to mute him.

While Kemkaran has not been suspended, she’s come under fire from inside and outside the party. Liberal Democrat opposition leader Anthony Hook called her position “untenable,” adding: “They have no respect for each other, let alone the public.”

Hook also warned the chaos was already affecting council services, with a committee on school transport now cancelled due to the suspensions — potentially delaying access for children in need.

Kent County Council — the largest local authority in the UK — was supposed to be a "showcase" for Reform UK after its landslide win in May, when the party took 57 of 81 seats, ending three decades of Conservative control.

The party, led nationally by Nigel Farage, had hoped Kent would demonstrate its ability to govern. But the internal drama has put that plan at risk.

In the video, Kemkaran insisted she was open to feedback, but added that when it came to big decisions like council reorganisation, she would act regardless of group consensus. She also warned her colleagues that unless the budget was balanced, “we are screwed”, and can forget about winning the general election.

Kemkaran has since labelled the leak an act of “treachery” and described those responsible as “cowards” and “foolish.” In a message to colleagues over the weekend, she said a thorough investigation was underway to identify the source.

One suspended councillor, Maxine Fothergill, has denied leaking the video, calling the situation a distraction: “Reform UK has a once in a lifetime generation mission to save our country. Distractions like this will only play into the hands of our opponents.”

Meanwhile, MP Rosie Duffield, an independent for Canterbury, said the video showed Reform as “chaotic” and “unprofessional.” She questioned Kemkaran’s priorities, pointing out the council leader seemed more focused on resuming her holiday than on matters affecting Kent residents.

With Farage himself previously warning that failing to deliver after winning power could be the party’s biggest risk, Kent’s ongoing turmoil now threatens to become a cautionary tale — not a showcase.