Nigel Farage takes aim at school transport costs, trans books and local government reorganisation

KentOnline / KMTV

Our Local Democracy Reporter Ollie Leader sat down with the leader of Reform UK.

Transcript

00:00So Nigel, obviously you've been touring around all the different councils of the UK.

00:04You've hit Kent at last, but you're not a Kent councillor nor a Kent MP.

00:09So I'm curious, why are you here today? What are you hoping to achieve by being here?

00:13I'm a National Party leader. We've won some councils. We've spectacularly won Kent.

00:20I mean, it was the most extraordinary political change the county's ever seen in its politics.

00:25Why am I here? Well, very simply, to encourage them, to show them they won't be forgotten,

00:32to say that I'm here, head office is here to help if they need us,

00:36and also to find out how they're getting on, to see how the project's going.

00:40So, yeah, no, no, I'm a very, very hands-on leader.

00:46So how are they getting on? We've just had an open cabinet meeting here.

00:49We've heard about Doge announcements, which are set for Thursday.

00:53Do you think it's been a successful first month of leadership at KCC?

00:58You know, I said, when I was here in the county on May 2nd, at the Hot Farm,

01:04we had our little celebration, I said to all of you, judge us after a year.

01:10You know, judge us after a year.

01:12All I would say is I think our leader, Lyndon,'s speech on Thursday

01:16is going to include some very, very sensible cost savings,

01:22you know, slimmer government, and that's what we've promised people,

01:25vote for us and we'll try and make sure your council tax money doesn't get wasted.

01:30And, but we've also been discussing some very positive things.

01:34You know, thoughts about Manston, where to go in the future with that.

01:37Thoughts about Operation Brock, what we can do.

01:43Now we're in charge of KCC to alleviate that.

01:45So there's some very positive stuff in the pipeline as well.

01:48It's very early days.

01:50It's very early days.

01:52You know, of course, there'll be personnel changes.

01:55All those things will happen in the first few months as we settle down.

01:59But I felt today, sitting with this group,

02:02there was a real sense of purpose.

02:05Devolution has come up quite a lot today.

02:07We even heard a potential referendum.

02:09But I'm curious about how would that work

02:11if it was to go ahead after this campaign that was being touted

02:14during the Open Cabinet?

02:16Would it be a government thing?

02:17Would it be a local council thing?

02:18Well, here's the thing.

02:19So local government reorganisation being pushed by the Labour Party

02:23to completely get rid of the identities, frankly, of our historic counties,

02:29to replace it with a series of unitaries,

02:35completely anonymous lines on maps, unitaries as I see it,

02:41to then superimpose a mayor over the top of it.

02:45But here's the key.

02:46No consultation.

02:48I bet you if we walked out now and stopped 100 people

02:52in the high street here in Maidstone,

02:54I bet not one had heard how things are going to change.

02:58And I just think within an historic county like Kent,

03:02people have a very strong county identity.

03:06And if you told them that KCC was to go,

03:09to be broken up into, well, we don't know,

03:11three, four or five unitaries,

03:14I think they'd ask real questions as to why that's happening.

03:18And so what I've talked about with the gang,

03:20and again, why am I here?

03:22I'm a very experienced campaigner, more than any of them.

03:25I've been doing this, well, since way before you were born.

03:29And I think we need to go out and test this.

03:33We'll put leaflets, we'll put Facebook ads up,

03:36we'll ask people to sign a petition.

03:39And if we find that the public, once they know about this,

03:42feel as I do and as the Cabinet does,

03:45then we'll push on for a referendum.

03:46But devolution was in the Labour manifesto,

03:48and the consultation will be happening over the summer.

03:51Is it too early to start gauging public perception on this

03:54when we don't know what the plans are?

03:56Shouldn't you be waiting until later in the year,

03:58especially given that it was in that Labour manifesto?

04:00Well, it's pretty clear what their intentions are.

04:03It's to divide Kent into three, four or five unitaries.

04:06That is what their plan is,

04:07and to abolish the existing district councils.

04:12Yeah, you know what?

04:13When you produce a manifesto this thick,

04:16I think all people ever learn about the top two or three policies.

04:20So Labour do have some legitimacy by virtue of the manifesto,

04:27but there does need to be a proper consultation.

04:30And I think by us putting the pressure on now,

04:32we might get a better consultation than otherwise we would have had.

04:36£98 million on taxis for special educational needs,

04:42children here in Kent.

04:43There's lots of statutory obligations

04:45which keep councils like Kent County Council

04:47from balancing their books year on year.

04:51Would a reformed government consider

04:53loosening some of those statutory obligations

04:55or changing the rules around,

04:57say, S&D Transport, for example,

04:59to try and save councils' money?

05:00Well, number one, who's getting the contracts?

05:02Number two, what price are they charging?

05:03Number three, how long are those contracts for?

05:05Number four, does this actually give value for money

05:08for council taxpayers in Kent?

05:11Number five, surely just because a kid

05:14can't get into the local primary school,

05:16we shouldn't be sending them by taxi somewhere else.

05:18Surely that becomes back to the issue of parental responsibility.

05:23And I could go on.

05:24There are lots of things that need to be looked at here.

05:26These are ridiculous sums of money.

05:29But would a reformed government look at this at a national level?

05:32Would there be a change in policy around

05:34what statutory obligations counties will have?

05:36No, no, we can look at that.

05:37But again, that's all going to take years.

05:40So what we have to do now is look at this bill,

05:43look at the way it's administered,

05:44look at how the money's spent,

05:45and we have to improve upon it.

05:48Your party has been embroiled here at KCC

05:50in a trans book debacle over the last week or so.

05:54Why is it a debacle?

05:55Because obviously people are concerned about it.

05:57Yes, I'm very concerned about it.

05:59I'm very concerned about young kids being poisoned.

06:02I'm very concerned indeed.

06:03Are you not concerned about the dozen or so,

06:06or at least half a dozen, council meetings

06:08which have been postponed or canceled?

06:10Surely your councillors should be focused more

06:13on their council duties rather than books in libraries.

06:16Well, this is a very tiny part of what we were elected to do.

06:18We were elected to do...

06:19Look, we said we wouldn't fly political flags

06:22from the top of this building.

06:24You know, we said that material like this

06:28should not be put in front of young people.

06:32All we're doing is firstly carrying out what we said we do,

06:36but secondly, for this sort of thing,

06:38we have overwhelming public support.

06:41But why have there been so many meetings

06:43in that first month which has been canceled and postponed?

06:46Does that say something about the experience levels here at KCC?

06:50I told you, judges.

06:52And judges a year in.

06:54Most of... Not all.

06:55Most of our councillors who walked through this door

06:57in the first week of May have not done this before.

07:00You've got to give people time to bed in

07:02and understand the wrong.

07:04What do you think KCC will look like a year from now?

07:06Because you're saying, let's judge you in a year.

07:08What do you think will be the bar

07:10that we can measure you against in a year?

07:11What do you think KCC will look like then?

07:14It'll be a bit leaner,

07:16a bit thinner,

07:16a bit more efficient.

07:20And I hope we will have got rid

07:22of the aspects that you could say,

07:24well, you know,

07:25if you have a one-party state rule for too long,

07:28you finish up with too little scrutiny.

07:30And that is what we intend to change.

07:31My one last question is,

07:33one of your MPs had the whip removed from them

07:35over the weekend,

07:36or they removed it from themselves

07:37over allegations around their business feelings.

07:40There was another KCC councillor in court last week

07:43accused of threatening to kill his wife.

07:46Does this say something

07:47about the sort of people that Reform UK attract?

07:50No, we've got a Labour MP at the moment

07:52accused of child abduction and child rape,

07:55the most serious charges faced by any politician

07:57since the war.

07:59All political parties,

08:01the bigger they get,

08:02they will have problems with people.

08:04But we've already seen two MPs

08:07that you've lost in the last year or so.

08:09Yeah, it's not good.

08:09I'm not pretending it is good.

08:10It's far from good.

08:12I wish it wasn't the situation.

08:14What are you going to do in the future

08:15to enhance the vetting processes?

08:16Because obviously,

08:17with the allegations we've heard

08:19both at Magistrates' Court

08:21and in Parliament.

08:22Well, so we vetted

08:25for these council elections

08:27in a way we've never vetted before.

08:30In the particular case here in Kent,

08:34these were things

08:34that a vetting process

08:36simply wouldn't have found.

08:39And actually,

08:40quite a lot of what has happened

08:41is since he was elected.

08:42So I can't vet for the future.

08:44I can only vet for the past.

08:46But in the case of the MP,

08:48he wasn't vetted at all.

08:49And that was the party I inherited.

08:51That was the party I inherited

08:52and the party that I said

08:53I would professionalise.

08:55And I think, you know,

08:56we put more council candidates

08:58into the field

08:59than any other party

09:00at this recent May,

09:02the first set of elections

09:03with very, very little,

09:05very little big argument at all.

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