Polly has accused the Reform UK Leader of Kent County Council (KCC) of lying, after the council admitted it had no evidence to back up her claim that the alleged cancellation of two ‘net zero’ projects had saved taxpayers £39.5 million. In fact, the council failed to provide evidence the projects had ever existed at all.
At a full KCC meeting in July last year, County Council Leader Linden Kemkaran told the council that Reform UK had cancelled two energy efficiency programmes, which she said would save the council £39.5 million as part of Reform UK’s Elon Musk-inspired Department of Local Government Efficiency (Dolge) initiative.
However, Polly submitted FOIs seeking evidence that would back up the council leader’s claims.
In its initial response, Kent County Council admitted that no business cases for the allegedly cancelled projects existed but did not provide further information, leading to five months of wrangling by Polly to get further documentation released.
The months-long delay in KCC responding breached the legal duty that public bodies comply with FOIs within one month. During that time, the Council admitted the reason for the delay was that the council leader’s office had not provided the necessary information to the council’s FOI team.
In their final response, the council admitted it had no documentation whatsoever – including emails or any other related documents – about the projects, and no basis for the £39.5 million saving claimed by Cllr Kemkaran.
They told Polly the £39.5 million figure quoted by Cllr Kemkaran was a political decision that was not substantiated by any council documentation, effectively conceding Reform UK made up the figure for political purposes and that the supposedly cancelled projects had never meaningfully existed.
Despite this, both Reform UK and KCC continue to quote the false figures in media appearances and press releases.
Polly accused the Council Leader of lying, saying:
Reform UK told voters that if elected to Kent County Council they would find millions in efficiency savings, but these Freedom of Information requests have caught Council Leader Linden Kemkaran out in a blatant lie. These supposedly cancelled net zero projects never existed, and the fantastical £39.5 million savings figure she is spinning is something she completely made up.
The reality is that Reform had no plan to deliver savings at Kent County Council, and now they’re lying to people rather than admitting their council is in chaos and they’re hiking council tax to cover up their mess. Linden Kemkaran needs to stop peddling these false figures and focus on delivering betting services for the people of Kent.
The issue has been brought into sharp relief after the Financial Times reported (2 Feb) comments by Cllr Paul Chamberlain, one of the Reform UK’s Kent cabinet members in charge of Dolge, that Reform UK had not managed to make meaningful efficiencies at Kent County Council and had been mistaken to believe that they would be able to. He resigned from his cabinet position the next day, claiming the comments were “an error of judgement”.
The press release announcing his resignation included the false £39.5 million saving figure as evidence of why his comments did “not accurately reflect… the council’s work on efficiency and value for money.”