Reform’s Kent crack-up is getting even worse

Ford claims he was accused by chief whip Maxwell Harrison of unwanted sexual approaches to unnamed women. Ford told me: “It was a lie. But I write and publish erotic novels in my spare time, and they used that information to give the accusation some credibility.” 

The accusation does not appear in his expulsion letter, presumably because it could not be stood up – though this did not stop the Reform press office from telling me about it last week. Instead, the letter of expulsion from Adam Richardson, Reform Party secretary, calls Mr Ford “insubordinate and churlish” and describes an email Mr Ford wrote to fellow Reform councillors as “insubordination cloaked in self-justification.” 

When Mr Ford was 13, growing up on the toughest estate in Kent, he spent three months in a young offenders institution. Maxwell told him that this barred him from holding committee positions.

This insistence that what happened decades ago still matters in 2025 contrasts jarringly with Reform leader Nigel Farage’s attitude to his own behaviour as a schoolboy, when 28 classmates have insisted he racially bullied Jewish and black boys, saying “Hitler was right”,  “gas them all” and “that’s the way back to Africa”.

Farage says:  “It’s 49 years ago, isn’t it? I’d just entered my teens.” Ford is almost the same age and might have hoped to be judged by the same standards. 

In May, Black was appointed chair of Kent Fire and Rescue Service (FRS).  Five other Reform councillors sat with him.  When all six were expelled from Reform, they were removed from the FRS. So, for the six weeks it took to replace the chair – October 27 to December 3 – the fire service had no political leadership.  

Black points out that in a major emergency requiring substantial cancellation of leave, the FRS – the political leadership – has to sanction it.  It was not functioning, which could have been disastrous.  

He adds that it could not agree to large spending commitments. Kent Fire Brigades Union (FBU) secretary Danny Barrett says: “Many of our fire engines are 15 years old.  If we’d seen a chance to buy a second hand one, we couldn’t have done it.”

Black says: “Linden Kemkaran claims it didn’t put Kent people at risk, but it did. She lied to the people of Kent, lied to the firefighters, and lied to Reform national leadership.”   

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Black’s vice chair on the FRS was councillor Isobel (Izzy) Kemp, also now expelled from Reform.  She says: “The removal of the chair, vice-chair, and other key members of the FRS presents a serious and unacceptable risk to both the public and the employees.”

Reform’s press office told me that this was refuted on TB  by the chief executive of Kent FRS, Ann Millington, but what Ms Millington actually said was that it did not affect day-to-day service, but could cause problems in rare situations.

The first sign of trouble was the leak in October of the video in which Ms Kemkaran told her councillors to “fucking suck it up.” A Reform investigation failed to find the leaker. All nine expelled and suspended councillors insist that they do not know who it was. 

Nonetheless, the letter expelling Black claims he knew of other councillors recording confidential meetings “but chose to withhold this information from the Party.” He denies this.

Black and Kemp first knew they were in trouble when Kemp received an 11pm phone call from chief whip Harrison, who claimed that Black was not doing the FRS job properly. Kemp reported this to Black, who contacted Kemkaran, who called him back to say she had found out the source of the complaint about Black’s performance. It was, she said, Kemp herself! 

Why has Reform put itself through this unnecessary agony? Black points out that the chair of the fire authority is the best remunerated job in the ruling party’s gift, with an allowance of £23,667 on top of the councillors’ allowance – a point mentioned to him by Maxwell, he says.

Perhaps money was a part of it, but authoritarian far right parties have a tendency to eat their own with special relish. Donald Trump is currently destroying Marjorie Taylor Greene, until recently his most slavishly loyal adherent. Thirties analogies are notoriously dangerous, but Hitler and Stalin turned first, and brutally, on their own comrades. 

The far right also finds charismatic leaders who cannot be wrong.  The nine councillors retain a touching faith that if only Farage was properly informed, he would put it right.

“I don’t think the top knows what’s going on,” says Ford. “Nigel Farage cannot have seen the complaints” says Black: “He’s a very busy man.” 

Kemkaran did not reply to my messages but in a speech in the council chamber she drew an analogy with people failing their army training:

“Some had quit because they couldn’t hack it, others have been thrown out for bad behaviour, because they weren’t good enough or they weren’t team players – not up to the challenge or were simply unable or unwilling to accept discipline. Believe me, we are much stronger and we are totally battle-fit.” Stalin is said to have put it more succinctly: “Fewer but better Russians.”

Should we take some comfort in the fact that Reform, like all authoritarian right wing parties in power, eats its own first?  Not really.  They will get to the rest of us soon enough.