A week of reckoning
Plus Kent firms caught underpaying staff, latest financial declarations for Kent MPs, news in brief, and more
Look, we don’t want to be constantly writing about Reform, but in a week where four councillors have been suspended, the leader has tried to whip up support and possibly come up short, internal complaints are being sent in to HQ, and arguments with neighbouring authorities are becoming common, here we are once again. Things look increasingly volatile less than six months into Reform’s tenure at County Hall, so we’ve got the full details below. We’ve also got details of Kent firms caught not paying their staff minimum wage, including at least one you will have heard of, the latest financial declarations of Kent MPs, news in brief, and more.
A week of reckoning
Five months after Reform swept into power at Kent County Council, promising a new leadership style and fiscal discipline, the administration has endured its most chaotic week to date. The week began with the fallout of a leak and ended with formal complaints being lodged against its own leader.
The story first broke over the weekend, when a leaked recording of a private Reform group meeting revealed open dissent among councillors and a leadership style many described as heavy-handed. Within hours of the footage emerging, County Hall was in damage-control mode. By Monday morning, four councillors - Paul Thomas, Oliver Bradshaw, Bill Barrett and Maxine Fothergill - had been suspended pending investigation for “bringing the party into disrepute.”
All four remain elected members but will now sit as independents, reducing Reform’s dominance from 54 seats to 50. The suspensions followed an earlier suspension over misconduct allegations, another of a councillor now awaiting trial over threats to kill his wife, and a defection to UKIP, meaning that seven councillors have now left or been suspended since May.
Leader Linden Kemkaran reportedly told colleagues the leak was an act of “treachery” and that she had begun a hunt for the “cowards” responsible. There was no formal comment or press conference, and attempts to draw a line under the matter quickly failed as the backlash spread beyond the party.
Liberal Democrat group leader Antony Hook said, “Reform’s meetings are starting to sound more like an episode of The Traitors than the running of a major council. All that’s missing is Claudia Winkleman asking who they’re going to banish next,” he said. “Residents are paying the price for their incompetence.”
Green Party leader Mark Hood took a more sober line, issuing a statement under the heading Disarray and Division – Seven councillors down in six months amid foul-mouthed fury.
“While every political group will have its differences, they are usually resolved by reasoned debate,” he said. “Being told to ‘just fucking suck it up’ by your leader is unlikely to attract universal and unwavering support.”
Hood noted that the administration had already lost one councillor to suspension and another to UKIP before the latest row, arguing that “the administration is floundering amid chaos and finger-pointing.” He added that “a change at the top before the year is out” now appeared possible.
Writing in The Conversation, psychologist Lisa Lazard called the meeting “a case study in poor leadership,” saying its language revealed “a lack of the psychological safety needed to effectively run a council or any other organisation.”
Behind closed doors, Kemkaran tried to steady the ship. Early in the week, she circulated a message to councillors asking them to sign a joint statement of support.
“To counter all the negativity, HQ would like a statement ready to issue in support of the leadership ideally signed by all members,” with KentOnline publishing the statement in full.
Days later, no statement has publicly appeared. The silence speaks volumes inside County Hall, and may yet represent a miscalculation by the leadership.
Labour MPs across the county also sensed an opportunity, with seven Kent MPs writing to Nigel Farage calling for Kemkaran to step down, arguing that “the people of Kent deserve better.”
The week’s next flashpoint came from outside the county administration. Medway Council leader Vince Maple wrote publicly to Kemkaran following The Guardian’s coverage of her comments about local government reorganisation (LGR). He sought “urgent clarification” on whether Kent County Council was still acting “in good faith” after Kemkaran was quoted describing participation in the LGR process as “the cleverest way of putting a spoke in the works.”
“Are you acting in good faith or attempting to be clever by putting a spoke in the works?” Maple asked.
He also objected to a remark in which Kemkaran allegedly described other Kent leaders as possessing “a shocking level of ignorance” about reorganisation, calling the phrasing “pretty disrespectful.”
Maple’s letter further challenged any suggestion that criticism of the Reform leader was rooted in sexism.
“Any potential implication that I have acted in a misogynistic way is one I find ludicrous,” he wrote. “I would welcome clarification.”
The correspondence, released publicly, underlined the breakdown in relations between Kent’s two largest councils, one now led by Reform, the other by Labour.
As attention shifted to inter-council relations, a Medway Council Cabinet meeting revealed that a proposed deal to continue the work of Visit Kent and Locate in Kent, agencies responsible for promoting tourism and inward investment that recently collapsed, had fallen apart.
Councillors revealed that KCC had agreed in principle to a £500,000 joint package with Medway Council, but then asked at short notice for Medway’s contribution to double from £50,000 to £100,000. Medway’s leadership described the request as “chaotic” and accused KCC of playing politics rather than partnership. The future of both organisations remains unresolved.
Elsewhere, Byline Times disclosed that the Reform leadership had approached opposition parties for help finding further budget savings after its own search for cuts fell short. The council, which manages a £2.5 billion annual budget, invited rival groups to suggest reductions to close a looming funding gap. For a party elected on pledges of tight fiscal management, the move suggests promises that savings would be easy to find were not as simple as initially made out.
By this morning, it KentOnline reported that at least five Reform councillors had lodged formal complaints about the leadership’s behaviour.
The grievances, sent through regional officials to the party’s London headquarters, allege that backbench councillors have been sidelined and ignored by senior figures.
One member told the website that, “This comes down to the way backbenchers feel they have been treated. There is a culture and a leadership style among those at the very top that a significant proportion of those backbenchers are not happy with.”
A Reform spokesperson declined to comment directly, saying only, “As standard, we don’t comment on internal complaints.”
The complaints added a new layer to a story already defined by revolt and suspension. What began as disciplinary action against four councillors has now become a dispute reaching Reform’s national leadership.
The episode has already become shorthand for the difficulties of turning a protest movement into a governing administration. It is natural to wonder how much of the council’s focus has been lost to infighting at a time when budgets still need balancing and services still need running. Internal correspondence, resignations, and statements of condemnation have consumed the week.
The group still holds a working majority, but few in County Hall expect the situation to remain static for long. Whether the internal investigations bring reconciliation or more departures, the ‘shop window’ Reform once touted now shows a council preoccupied with its own reflection.
Kent firms caught underpaying staff
Several Kent employers have been named by the government for failing to pay the minimum wage, including Faversham brewer Shepherd Neame, one of the county’s biggest and most recognisable businesses.
The company, which runs around 300 pubs across the southeast, was found to have underpaid 942 workers a total of £18,686. The issue related to deductions for uniforms and training, a recurring problem across the hospitality sector.
Kate Ware, People Director at Shepherd Neame, told the Kent Current:
“An unintentional breach of pay guidelines for uniforms and training for team members in some of our pub businesses was brought to our attention by HMRC in 2022. We acted immediately to revise our guidance in both areas, and arranged one-off payments to those former and current team members affected with payment of historic arrears of pay as calculated by HMRC.”
Shepherd Neame’s case accounts for most of the county’s total underpayment in this latest enforcement round, which together saw over £42,000 owed to more than 1,300 Kent workers.
Also on the list was Townsend Montessori Nurseries Ltd, another Faversham-based company, which owed £9,147 to 60 workers. The business has since been taken over by The Old Station Nursery Group, which said the problem occurred before it acquired the company and was addressed immediately afterwards.
“The Old Station Nursery Group, current owners of Townsend Montessori Nurseries Ltd, can confirm that the breach occurred prior to the acquisition of the company and was inherited at the point of sale. As soon as the issue came to light, it was rectified. The Old Station Nursery Group has robust payroll processes in place and follows all current guidance on the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage to ensure full compliance across all settings.”
Other Kent firms on the list were the bafflingly located South Yorkshire Pizza Ltd in Gravesend (£5,026 to 242), Sunrise Day Nursery (Langley) in Maidstone (£3,546 to 11 workers), Pearson Carpentry in Ashford (£2,369 to 2), Alcaline UK in Hythe (£1,898 to 3), H2O Plumbusters in Maidstone (£1,281 to 1), and P J (Spar) Ltd in Folkestone (£708 to 1).
Across Britain, almost 500 employers have been named this month for similar breaches. Officials say the most common causes are deductions for uniforms or training, mistakes with apprentice rates, and failing to count all working hours. Companies are required to repay arrears in full and face penalties once identified.
For most Kent businesses, the sums involved were modest, a few hundred pounds spread across a handful of staff, yet the reputational damage is hard to ignore. For larger employers, the errors often stem from outdated guidance or payroll systems rather than intent.
Still, for those on the receiving end of underpayment, intent makes little difference. A few pounds short each shift adds up, but at least for many of the workers affected, that gap has now finally been rectified.
Latest financial declarations of Kent MPs
The Register of Members’ Financial Interests is where all MPs must register donations, gifts, and hospitality they receive. On the most recent update to the register, some Kent MPs have had some pretty substantial additions to declare:
Lauren Sullivan (Labour, Gravesham) has been given a parking permit by Gravesham Borough Council that allows her to park in council car parks when on constituency business, valued at £1,564.
Tom Tugendhat (Conservative, Tonbridge) undertook a tour of Gallopi, paid for by the Commonwealth War Graves Association. The total value for travel, accommodation, and food was £1,103.
Naushabah Khan (Labour, Gillingham and Rainham) visited Brunei as part of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme. Flights were valued at £799 and paid for by the Armed Forces Parliamentary Trust.
Tony Vaughan (Labour, Folkestone and Hythe) received £37 for 20 minutes’ work as a barrister that he undertook before he became an MP in July 2024, suggesting he really needs a better invoicing system.
In brief
🗳️ The leader of Sevenoaks District Council is ‘considering his position’ after losing a confidence vote at an extraordinary full council meeting last week. Conservative councillor Roddy Hogarth lost the vote 24-15, a remarkable figure given his group has 24 seats on the council.
📣 UKIP attempted to lead an anti-immigration march through Rochester over the weekend, where their group were outnumbered roughly 12:1 by counter-protestors.
🚧 Two and a half years after it fell down, there is still little movement in fixing Galley Hill Road in Swanscombe.
🪪 The new EU Entry/Exit System has got off to a fairly quiet start at Folkestone and Dover, but the real test will likely come as traffic ramps up ahead of Christmas.
🏫 A specialist school for vulnerable children and young people is set to close suddenly following a funding dispute with Kent County Council.
⚓ Attempts to create a Dover version of Folkestone’s Harbour Arm haven’t gone well.
Footnotes
Have a Kent story you think we might be interested in? Get in touch via hello(at)kentcurrent(dot)news - We’re always happy to talk off the record in the first instance…
Follow us on social media! We’re on Facebook, BlueSky, and Instagram for now.
Enjoying the Kent Current? Pass it on. If you know someone who’d like this too, forward them this email and invite them to subscribe.
In a world increasingly dominated by crappy, blatant grifters, it has actually become pleasurable to read a register of interests piece and go 'oh, ok'.
But maybe I've just spent too much time reading your sister publication during certain previous members' terms...