‘Clickbait and Chaos’: 100 Days of Reform UK

Photo: KCC Reform UK group

Kent becomes a testing ground for Reform UK’s wider agenda

by

Adam Stevenson-Emmett

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‘Serve those who elected us, the people of Kent’, Kent County Council Leader Linden Kemkaran announced nearly 100 days ago, when Reform UK took control of the KCC on May 1st. 

The acting leader of KCC Green Group, Mark Hood, has summarised the first 100 days of the Reform UK administration at Kent County Council as ‘clickbait and chaos.’ He continued, ‘we were told that Reform UK would act in the interests of the residents of Kent but instead we have only seen chaotic management, bigotry and empty soundbites that help no-one.’

Looking back at the first 100 days of Reform’s tenure in Kent, we can see that the Garden of England is quickly becoming the testing ground for Reform UK  ‘DOLGE’, and a wider culture of ‘clickbait and chaos’.

(‘DOGE’ stands for Department of Government Efficiency. The L stands for local.)

On July 10th, Kemkaran refused to support an opposition motion to strengthen the council’s resolve against violence against women and girls, alleging that these crimes are predominantly being committed by non-British nationals and trans people. These claims were subsequently refuted by leading domestic abuse charities working in Kent.

According to opposition Councillors this only  gave the green light to a whole range of bigoted bilge from the more extreme element of Reform UK members about protecting our streets from Afghans and Namibians (I’m yet to meet any in Whitstable). These allegations were all based on some dodgy statistics from a Tufton Street anti-immigration think tank funded by Reform UK sympathisers and reported in The Daily Telegraph.

Ironically, just seven days earlier, it was reported that newly elected Reform UK member, Daniel Taylor, had appeared at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court charged with three offences (all of which he denied) including allegations of threatening to murder his wife. Unsurprisingly, this was not mentioned during the debate.

Reform UK’s political grandstanding is best seen in KCC press releases. Perhaps you have read the reports on their £60 million investment to improve roads? Turns out this was allocated by the previous administration (talk about stolen valour). What about Reform’s contribution to improving the road network? The ‘blitz on potholes’ they so aptly named has so far been allocated a budget of £0. What about the £16 million in reduced debt achieved at KCC? These were bonds that matured and were ‘also scheduled prior to the KCC elections this year and had nothing to do with Reform UK’, said Hood.  

Reform UK’s political orthodoxy is interesting to say the least. From putting teenagers in charge of children and family social services, to its registration as a limited company, it enjoys overrepresentation in the media (Farage is one of BBC Question Time’s most platformed guests). Through its peacocking, it has managed to curry favour with millions of voters.

At KCC the DOGE cost-cutting team was announced on June 2nd with great media fanfare. Just a few days later, however, the Reform UK chairman and DOGE champion, Zia Yusef, resigned. Reform’s DOGE and its 12-person team of data analysts, accountants and software engineers have already started work in Kent, viewing it as a testbed for its national agenda. ‘It’s all just theatre to keep Nigel Farage happy and unfortunately Kent residents are paying the price for it,’ said Mr Hood.

Like Musk’s DOGE in the US, the party appears to be aligning with AI firms. In a recent interview, Zia Yusuf expounded his vision for the country, one which is centred around AI: ‘we need to wake up very quickly, because if we are not participating as we should be in this new world of AI, we are unilaterally disarming and letting the British people down.’ With significant concessions made to tech firms, most notably US data company Palantir obtaining a £330 million contract from NHS England in November 2023 to develop the Federated Data Platform (FDP), locals are understandably concerned about a party which looks to align itself with technocrats.

Our local Green Party councillor for Whitstable West, Stuart Heaver, told me that when he attended a KCC online training session on Prevent – the organisation set up to refer individuals at risk of becoming involved in terrorism activities – the highly experienced convener was constantly interrupted by Reform UK leader, Linden Kemkaran, who wanted to know why the emphasis of his briefing was not solely on Islamic extremism, rather than including Far Right and Neo-Nazi organisations. This is despite the fact that, as of September 2024, 30% of those in custody for terrorism offences in Great Britain are ‘categorised as holding extreme right-wing ideologies’.

The convener calmly pointed out that while 75% of MI5 resources were allocated to investigating Islamic terrorism groups, the sole reported act of terrorism on UK soil in 2022 was committed by Andrew Leak, a white British male. Leak threw three petrol bombs attached to fireworks at the perimeter fence of the Western Jet Foil migrant processing centre in Dover, Kent, before killing himself at a nearby petrol station.

Encouraged by his leader, one Reform UK member ignored this fact and claimed he had interviewed about 200 refugees at Manston asylum processing centre in the course of his work and, in his opinion, they were all potential terrorists who should be referred to Prevent. (His reasoning was that ‘some’ had tattoos of Kalashnikovs on their arms.) He also managed to insult officers serving in Kent Police Counter Terrorism Unit and Special Branch by alleging they ‘hadn’t got a clue what was going on’; no doubt he had the answers.

racist drivel

“The bigotry and racism can be eye-watering,” said Heaver who walked out of the last KCC full meeting unable to tolerate what he described as “racist drivel”.  

While I am certain that the majority of the 1,800 voters in Whitstable West who voted for Reform aren’t racists or bigots and are instead frustrated by the repeated failure of the established political parties to make changes, in Reform UK there is an endemic culture of narcissism: amateurs who are more focused on blaming others and dividing communities than sorting out local issues. Though miles from Whitstable, Reform has managed to bring the putrid whiff of sewage inland, along with a culture of scapegoating and flagrant racism.

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Adam Stevenson-Emmett is a freelance journalist and Press Coordinator for the Canterbury District Green Party. He writes on the environment and culture more generally.

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