Opposition "Bemused"

Reform UK councillors have had a noisy first day in the chamber running Kent County Council, as they congratulated each other on their win.

However, they only have six months to decide how the council should be abolished.

OPINION PIECE FROM SIMON FINLAY of the Local Democracy Reporting Network:

Depending on how one views these things, the first day in the chamber at Kent County Council for Reform UK’s newly-elected members was a day for triumph or triumphalism.

The victors clapped, cheered, walloped the table tops and gave standing ovations to themselves, while the miniscule opposition contingent watched in bemused fascination or near disgust. Decorum, their faces seemed to say, was in rather short supply.

But it was Reform’s time, after all, and who could deny them their gloating rights?

These Farage-following newbies are not of the old UKIP stereotype variety – all maroon-trousers, blazers, club ties and whiskers.

The Reform UK lot was a symphony in turquoise as they gathered on the grand, red-carpeted staircase. Matching ties, pressed dark suits and sharp shoes with one or two sporting brand new hair-dos.

The women, and there are quite a few, seemed to have followed the dress code: Make it sassy.

At first flush, they look determined, confident, on it. They clearly prefer the pack mentality presently, partly because they hardly know each other and because only a handful know what they are actually doing.

But then that is true of every person who enters life as an elected public servant. Most MPs haven’t a clue what they’re doing when they enter the Houses of Parliament for the first time. This is no different.

Reform has the mandate delivered at the polling stations and those on the losing end of the chamber will have to get used to it.

In time it will be clubbable, full of cliques and friendships, perhaps some out-of-hours, chummy bonhomie in the coffee bars and boozers.

There are a fair few younger members, too, which is no bad thing. Back in the dying days of the long Conservative administration, even its own backbenchers admitted it had become way too “pale, male and stale”.

“The Barbarians are no longer at the gate,” messaged one of the opposition members with a knowing look up to the assembled press folk loitering in the public gallery.

Although no one will say it publicly in the opposition ranks, they are just waiting for Reform to foul up.

Cornered in the corridor, one sidled up and said: “The place will be ****ing bankrupt in nine months with this lot in charge.”

Others were not so charitable with the timeline, it has to be said.

It is probably sour grapes. Bad losers, and all that.

Such a large Reform group in the chamber – 57 of 81 after May 1 – will be hard to manage, to keep sweet and onside.

That will be the job, in part, of the amiable and youthful chief whip Maxwell Harrison.

At 25, he entered the political arena at a time of great change in local government.

Clearly, his leader Linden Kemkaran is not relishing the prospect of compulsory reorganisation, which will entail KCC demolishing itself, fearing Kent will cease to be “one county, one people”.

She has a point but she may not have any choice. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s “Devolution Revolution” seems a fait accompli and will require a collegiate approach with the 13 other doomed authorities in Kent.

Despite the absence of a reprieve from the government, it is said that there is far from harmony among the council leaders about what the county will look like – with either three or four new unitary authorities.

They have around six months to come up with a plan.

So, they’d better get a move on or face the prospect of having the decision made for them. Maybe the no-nonsense Cllr Kemkaran can knock some heads together?