Reform leader tells council: We are here to unite, not to divide

AUTHORITY'S NEW CHIEF SAYS SHE HAS LITTLE TIME FOR 'SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS'

- By STANLEY MURPHY-JOHNS

KENT County Council will not fly a Pride flag this summer and will remove the Ukrainian flag from the chamber, new council leader Linden Kemkaran has confirmed.

Reform swept to local election victory earlier this month, taking 57 of the 81 county council seats, wiping out a Conservative majority which had stood in the county for almost 30 years.

Last Thursday, councillors heard from their new leader, Linden Kemkaran, at their annual full meeting at County Hall in Maidstone.

Cllr Kemkaran told the chamber her new administration had little time for “special interest groups” or the flags that represent them.

She said: “The Union Jack, the flag of St George and the flag of Kent, they are the identity that we all share and it is that identity that we need to focus on.”

Her words were met with raucous applause and table thumping from the Reform benches, likened to a “political rally” by the council’s opposition leader, Liberal Democrat Antony Hook.