The Lib Dems have compared factionalism and infighting in Reform-run Kent County Council to a Monty Python-style farce
Reform has been mocked after two expelled councillors on Kent County Council formed a rival ‘Independent Reformers Group’.
The party has now lost nine councillors in Kent through a combination of defections, suspensions and expulsions. It won 57 out of 81 seats in the May local elections but is down to 48.
Yesterday, Reform lost another councillor, Isabella Kemp, who said she had been suspended by Nigel Farage’s party and was considering taking legal action.
The i Paper reported that Lib Dem opposition leader Anthony Hook compared the splinter group to the farcical infighting in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, where the People’s Front of Judea and the Judean People’s Front battle each other.
Anthony Hook, the Lib Dem leader of the opposition on KCC, told The i Paper: “Reform have no idea what they are doing. They have already descended into factions and infighting.
“Instead of running a council in desperate need of leadership, they are busy recreating Monty Python’s back catalogue. Next, we’ll have the Reformers Independent Group as well.”
Reform has referred to Kent County Council as their flagship council and a “shop window” for what they would be like in government.
In a leaked video of a Reform group meeting last month, the Reform leader of Kent County Council swore and raised her voice at colleagues, telling those who disagreed with her to “f***ing suck it up”.
Following the leak, six Reform councillors, who were allegedly linked with the leak, were suspended for supposedly bringing the party “into disrepute”.
Councillors Bill Barrett, Paul Thomas, Brian Black, Oliver Bradshaw and Robert Ford have now been expelled while Maxine Fothergill remains suspended.
Ford had already been suspended following an “unofficial complaint” from several female members of staff.
Two other councillors have also been suspended and a third has joined Farage’s old party, UKIP.
One of the suspended councillors, Daniel Taylor, was charged with threatening to kill his wife.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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