An opposition councillor said Reform in Kent even tried to link parking issues to immigration…
Lib Dem Reform Watch, a scrutiny body set up by Ed Davey, criticised Reform-led county councils for being ‘isolationist’ and focusing on immigration and other national issues.
At a Q&A session on ReformWatch at Lib Dem Conference, the opposition leader on Kent County Council, Anthony Hook, gave an astounding example of how Reform linked a discussion about disabled parking to immigration.
Hook said: “They are utterly obsessed with it, to the exclusion of almost everything else. Reform councillors view almost everything related to immigration.”
He said in July, Kent County Council had a debate on disabled parking.
When Hook presented the Lib Dems’ motion, he joked: “‘At least I know you won’t bring immigration into this’, but they did!”.
The councillor warned that the public will continue to be let down because Reform refuses to see other things that may be driving a problem.
Hook said the first action by Reform leader at Kent County Council, Linden Kemkaran, was to remove the Ukraine flag from the council hall.
He said that the move “went down very badly with the public”. He said the Lib Dems have been reminding local residents that the party supports the people of Ukraine and Reform doesn’t, claiming that “is driving some support away from Reform”.
He also condemned the Reform-led Kent County Council’s ‘isolationist’ decision last week to rescind its declaration of a climate emergency.
He said their “crazy attitude was that Kent is pretty small on the global scale, we can’t do anything therefore we shouldn’t do anything. They completely missed the point.”
Hook said “In local elections, the key to beating Reform remains the local issues.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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