Are we heading for rainbow alliance at county council?

THERE are many possible outcomes on May 1 when 81 Kent County Council seats are decided.

- By SIMON FINLAY

The Conservatives could retain overall control but with fewer members or could form a minority ruling administration if they fall short of the 41 required.

The latter scenario is thought more likely given its recent history with the ruling party forced to make uncomfortable cuts amid a government funding squeeze but they might have to find a partner to govern.

Although Kent has long been regarded as a “Conservative” county, by and large, in former Tory domains like Tunbridge Wells, support has evaporated.

The idea that Folkestone and Hythe could turn red from blue at Westminster in July 2024 would have been almost unthinkable a decade ago.

Reform UK might win enough seats to become the biggest party with overall control or take too few to form a minority authority. Party leader Nigel Farage would not commit to winning outright and few believe the pollster Electoral Calculus’s recent prediction that it would secure 41 seats.

If the Liberal Democrats, the Labour Party and Green Party plus sundry independents can secure the 41 seats in a target-driven campaign where tactical voting comes into play, a rainbow alliance is certainly not out of the question.

All might say publicly they want to take control, but how many privately believe they can?

However, the present leaders of those groups, observers say, could work together and take the authority into the phase where, under the government's reorganisation programme, the council effectively dismantles itself in three years' time.