Since its landslide election win in May, Reform-run Kent County Council has never been far away from the headlines.

News editor Matt Leclere looks back at the party’s first six months in charge at County Hall…

May

Elected with an overwhelming majority on May 1, taking 57 of the 81 seats in the council chamber, the group soon elected Linden Kemkaran as leader of Kent County Council.

The opening days were a celebration, with plenty of pictures of jubilant new councillors displaying their delight at having taken control.

Immediately, Cllr Kemkaran pledged to ban Ukrainian and Pride flags and other emblems from council buildings, replacing them with Kent, Union and St George’s flags.

Removing the Ukraine flag sparked a bitter backlash as Cllr Kemkaran called the war, and KCC’s symbolic opposition to Russia’s invasion, a “distraction” from matters in Kent.

It took three weeks for the cabinet to be confirmed ahead of the first meeting of the new council on May 22.

June

After a relatively uneventful first few weeks, June began with one of the highest-profile announcements as KCC was selected as a test case for Reform’s centrally-selected DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) team to assess the authority’s books.

Party chairman Zia Yusuf met leader Cllr Kemkaren, KCC chief executive Amanda Beer, and senior council staff.

Mr Yusuf described the contract procurement process in places as “broken” and said people are paying the highest levels of tax since the Second World War, while public services have steadily got worse.

However, just days after the visit to Kent, he resigned as party chairman, declaring his work for Mr Farage was “no longer a good use of my time”.

But just 48 hours he was back in a senior role in the party’s national DOGE team.

The first major scandal for Reform UK in Kent came as county councillor Daniel Taylor was suspended amid allegations he had threatened to kill his wife and subjected her to years of coercive behaviour.

Cllr Taylor, who continues as an independent member for Cliftonville, near Margate, has since been charged and will stand trial next May.

On June 26, Cllr Kemkaran pledged to crack down on the almost £100 million bill for free home-to-school taxis. So far, no results have been published by the council’s DOGE team.

July

In a busy opening week of the month, Reform was not far from the headlines.

There was a row over relocating a trans library book from a children’s section, Cllr Taylor appeared in court for the first time since his arrest in June, party leader Nigel Farage turned up and Cllr Kemkaran replaced her cabinet member for transport.

Reform came under fire after Cllr Kemkaran announced “another victory for common sense in Kent” on X, when she said the council had removed transgender books from a library’s children’s section.

Communities and regulatory services cabinet member, Cllr Paul Webb, told his X followers he had acted following a complaint from a resident: “Our children do not need to be told they were born in the wrong bodies and from today this will stop.”

However, opposition leader Cllr Antony Hook (Lib Dem) said the announcement of the policy on social media was “preposterous”.

Days later, Mr Farage arrived in Kent to meet with the council’s leadership and waded into the debate on school transport, the trans-literature row and commented on the “insane” local government reorganisation proposals.

At the end of the week, Cllr Kemkaran’s credentials were questioned after she removed her transport cabinet member just weeks after he was appointed.

Firing shots as he was replaced, Cllr Bill Barrett - who has since been expelled from the party - said he had been “ambushed”.

He blasted the leadership for their focus on “soundbite politics” and “rushing” to announce ill-thought-out spending cut policies.

On July 10, Reform announced plans to return 500 workers to the office and abandon the sale of County Hall in Maidstone - it was one of Reform’s key election pledges.

Cllr Kemkaran said this would avoid the need for KCC to borrow £14m while wider “no more borrowing” policies would save £33m by the end of next March.

Reversing the Conservative administration’s Net Zero commitment by scrapping plans for solar panels on KCC-owned buildings, a rollout of LED lighting and enabling 75MW of solar parks to meet the authority’s energy needs and replacing its fleet of vehicles with electric models, Cllr Kemkaran pledged this would save a further £40m.

Councillors would also see a 5% slash on their allowances - saving £202,500.

A further policy announcement saw Reform overturn another former Tory administration hot potato - the question of tip closures.

The issue had been controversial since 2023 and sparked a backbench revolt among Tory members before Reform took charge, but cabinet member David Wimble said there were no plans to shut any centres and they were all safe from the axe.

Away from County Hall for a moment and Reform saw further election success in July after taking two seats at Dartford council following a by-election after the Tory incumbents resigned and moved away from the area.

The wins, despite a turnout of under 25% in both wards, were hailed as a victory for the party’s early success of the “common sense agenda” at KCC.

The month also brought some bombshell transfer news after former Conservative MP Adam Holloway - who lost his Gravesham seat at the 2024 general election when Labour came to power - joined Reform.

And in further controversy, there was a story about an Ashford councillor defending comments about the opening of a halal meat shop as a “takeover”.

She claimed the town is being overtaken by a “culture which does not align to our own” before qualifying them as valid because she is “the voice of the people who elected me”.

August

The big headlines came as KCC announced a budget shortfall of £50m for the 2026-27 period and warned “difficult money-saving decisions will be necessary”.

The council has been trying to find ways of reducing high-spend areas, such as the near £100m bill for special needs pupils’ home-to-school transport, to drive down overall costs.

The previous Conservative administration warned many times the authority’s income does not match its outgoings, especially since adult social care bills continue to rise each year.

A consultation was launched in August with further work on budget-setting ongoing behind the scenes (more on council tax later…).

Tensions surrounding immigration ramped up with a High Court ruling on an Essex hotel housing asylum seekers being found not to have the correct planning permissions in place.

Cllr Kemkaran waded into the issue by calling on district and borough authorities across Kent to take legal action against unlawful asylum seeker hotels.

Despite only a few hotels being used across the entire county, the KCC leader told local planning authorities to step in if the correct planning permissions are not in place or not being followed.

However, three leaders openly defied her and one refused on the grounds of “division and racism”.

KCC came under further fire as Cllr Kemkaran was accused of misusing County Hall and wasting public money in staging what opponents described as “a hate rally”.

The event in Maidstone was put on to discuss violence against women and girls but several groups and parties boycotted it because of the presence of the Women’s Safety Initiative (WSI), which has claimed a direct link between immigration and sexual violence.

Cllr Kemkaran said afterwards: “The opposition parties do not like to have their world view challenged and if anyone dares to put forward different points of view they tend not to be able to cope.”

The event featured a wide range of speakers, including a lengthy section on prevention of violence as well as other areas such as safety in public spaces and spiking.

September

As party conference season got underway, the Reform cohort at KCC suffered a setback when Thanet councillor Amelia Randall quit to join Ukip.

Just four days before her defection, she was posting in support of the party, making her announcement all the more surprising.

The subject of local government reform and the wider shake-up of the political geography was back on the table in September.

Cllr Kemkaran launched her solo venture calling for a single council in Kent as part of planned government reforms.

She believes that one, new unitary body would deliver the best outcomes for local residents and be more cost-effective. However, that is not a proposal currently on the table.

Other leaders of councils in the county have already agreed to submit a plan supporting three and four unitaries to replace the current 12 second-tier authorities (district and borough councils) as well as Medway Council and Kent County Council.

A war of words ensued when KCC announced plans to ditch its climate emergency declaration, in favour of a more “open-minded but sceptical” approach to global warming.

A 15-paragraph study seeks to challenge current thinking over CO2 emissions, a warming climate and the science behind changes in weather.

The Reform-led authority claims that it is “increasingly feared” the climate emergency is “being pushed as a means to increase state control over people’s lives”.

The Green Party group has dismissed the argument as “garbage science and conspiracy theories”.

Green members also stepped up scrutiny of Reform’s plan to move operations back into County Hall by cancelling its sale, would increase the taxpayers’ burden by £67m in what was described as a “financially reckless vanity project”.

There was plenty of back-slapping and congratulations as a press announcement declared Reform had saved KCC £50m by settling a loan 40 years early.

But the group was accused of using “smoke and mirrors” tactic after Cllr Brian Collins, told colleagues the loan with Barclays Bank had been wiped out with a discount of £5.5m.

It emerged £44.5m to pay off the loan came out of “general cash reserves”.

However, the giant cheque and the presentation in the council chamber was accused as a publicity stunt.

Conservative opposition group leader Cllr Harry Rayner, said: “[It] was nothing less than a financial stunt, smoke, mirrors and a cardboard cheque.

“Reform needs to look at the current overspends in adult social care and children’s services.”

News then emerged about in-fighting and bickering among the Reform leadership, with a party aide overheard at its conference in Birmingham talking about how “Kent is the bane of my existence”.

The anti-far right pressure group Hope Not Hate published alleged remarks made by Reform’s south east organiser Adam Wordsworth.

He was quoted: “It turns out they’re all w*****s and it turns out they all hate each other and it turns out all they do is fight with each other rather than reforming the council or attacking the opposition or making savings.”

October

The past two weeks have been a period of turmoil with headlines made for all the wrong reasons after that video surged around social media, the national press and even made a question on Have I Got News For You.

But first, some of the month’s other events…

KCC ruled out supporting a campaign which aims to make it easier for people with life-changing and life-altering conditions to access a Blue Badge - a fight being championed by KentOnline, Medway Council and all 18 of the county’s MPs.

Cllr Kemkaran outlined “increased costs”, the potential for fraudulent use, the “increase of pressure” on the system and the lack of “dedicated parking spaces” to explain her refusal.

Meanwhile, Reform won three seats at a Maidstone council by-election following the resignation of the independent councillors who were previously elected.

Four Tories also defected en masse at Gravesham council, while Medway councillor Robbie Lammas left the Conservatives to join Reform.

Cllr Robert Ford, who represents Maidstone Rural West, had the whip removed on October 13 following an “unofficial complaint” from multiple female members of staff at KCC over allegations of “lewd remarks”.

A party statement said Cllr Ford had been “offered a meeting with the whip's office to discuss the complaints” but after he “refused to engage”, a disciplinary procedure had been triggered.

Cllr Ford denied all allegations when asked by KentOnline - and was subsequently dumped by the party following the fallout of the leaked meeting video.

Flag-flying controversy dropped into the month as a Medway group’s local chairman’s comments during a public meeting sparked disbelief and shock while discussing the recent upturn in Union and St George’s flags on display.

Reform UK’s Chatham and Aylesford chairman Matt Johnson said there was a “fundamental failing” by those feeling anxious about the flags on show.

He added: “It’s a failure of assimilation and integration.

“No-one in this country should see the national flag and feel intimidated by it. If you are intimidated by it that represents a problem and does that mean your allegiances are elsewhere?”

Before the election in May, Reform candidates pledged to cut taxes, or suggested rises would likely be 3% or less.

However, in a Financial Times interview, KCC cabinet member for social care Diane Morton said a 5% tax rise was likely as the council was “down to the bare bones”.

In response, East Thanet MP Polly Billington (Lab) was quick to turn the screw, saying: “Now we know what putting Reform in charge means – huge promises about savings, then failing to find any because they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

And in the leaked video (more on that fallout below), Cllr Kemkaran told colleagues: “If we can avoid putting up council tax by the full 5%, that is going to be the best thing we can do to show Reform can actually run something as big as Kent County Council.

“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.

“We need to keep resolutely focused on balancing this budget and showing we can run a council without us all fighting like rats in a sack.”

In the video, Cllr Kemkaran swore and threatened to mute a member who tried to raise a point with her during an online meeting.

In a row over local government reorganisation policy, the footage shows Cllr Kemkaran telling colleagues she has to make the big decisions that might be unpopular and “you are just going to have to f****** suck it up”.

An excoriating message to her members following the leak soon followed, describing the leaker or leakers as “cowards”.

Four people were suspended in the aftermath of the leak - two of whom, Bill Barrett and Robert Ford, were sacked by the party.

Batting away calls to quit by Kent MPs Cllr Kemkaran declared “business as usual”.

On October 23, it was revealed at least five members had sent grievances to Reform’s head office about the leadership’s behaviour.

Then this week, another three county councillors, Brian Black, Paul Thomas and Oliver Bradshaw, were booted out - bringing the number of expulsions to five.

The statement announcing their sackings alleged “a pattern of dishonest and deceptive behaviour” from the trio.

This week, a breakaway group of Independent Reformers was announced by Cllr Barrett.

Reform’s County Hall majority has gone from 45 to 37, having lost eight councillors through sackings, resignations and defections.