A Reform UK motion to declare an “Illegal Migration Emergency in Kent” has been pulled from tomorrow’s Kent County Council full council agenda after a senior officer ruled it risked breaching electoral rules, though the council’s Reform leadership is reported to be challenging that decision.
KCC’s democratic services manager Joel Cook advised members that the motion, along with two others tabled by the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party, should be deferred until after the Cliftonville by-election on April 9.
The move followed a formal complaint to the Electoral Commission by the Conservative group, which argued the motion was designed to influence the outcome of that poll.
Legal advice
The motion now faces a further contest, with KCC’s Legal Services team seeking external legal advice. All three motions remain in the papers for tomorrow’s meeting.
The motion itself, tabled by Cllr David Wimble, Reform’s Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Special Projects, makes sweeping claims about the cost and scale of asylum seeker arrivals.
Closer examination reveals a document built on legal mis-readings, selectively presented statistics, and figures that opposition councillors and ministers have flatly dismissed as “scaremongering”.
‘Suck it up’
Wimble’s track record as a councillor does not inspire confidence.
When East Thanet MP Polly Billington challenged KCC’s budget savings figures as built on fantasy economics, Wimble responded not with evidence but with a public threat to pull funding from Margate’s Turner Contemporary gallery, adding the instruction to “suck it up.”
The gallery, credited with bringing an estimated £100 million into the local economy since 2011, and supported by a KCC grant of £510,000 a year, has Tracey Emin as its patron.
She urged Reform to visit local restaurants and shops first, to understand what losing the gallery would actually mean.
Days later, KCC moved to auction off 367 pieces from the council’s own art collection, prompting accusations that the administration is selling off the family silver.
Talking rubbish
At a KCC committee meeting in July 2025, Wimble acknowledged he had been “talking rubbish for years.” The migration emergency motion suggests the habit has not been broken.
Behind the Wimble motion lies a council in considerable turmoil.
Reform won control of KCC in May 2025, taking 57 of 81 available seats.
Less than a year later, that dominance has been severely eroded.
Seven former Reform councillors on Kent County Council joined Restore Britain, the harder-right party founded by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, bringing Reform’s total down from 57 to 47.
The formation of the Restore Britain group instantly made it the third largest faction on Kent County Council.
Restore welcome to ‘dregs’
Reform dismissed the defectors with characteristic grace: “Restore are welcome to our dregs. Let’s not forget that six of these councillors were expelled.”
Reform’s loss of ten councillors has made their majority rather less comfortable; if they lose just six more seats, the party will lose overall control of the council.
One individual who has resisted the lure of Restore Britain is Cllr Bill Barrett, who began on Ashford Borough Council as a Conservative, became an Independent, then joined Reform UK, was expelled for bringing the party into disrepute, sat as an Independent Reformer, and, as of this month, has rejoined the Conservatives, saying he “did not feel comfortable with Reform UK.”
At loggerheads
Hovering at the fringes of all this is perhaps the most colourful character in Kent’s current far-right ecosystem.
Graeme William Sergeant, a onetime BNP activist has, as we have also reported, spent recent weeks bouncing between Ben Habib’s Advance UK and Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain, supporting alternately two parties that are at loggerheads with each other, and neither of which appears to want him.
Sergeant announced he intended to field a Restore Britain candidate at the Cliftonville by-election, which is at the centre of the current row and was triggered by the jailing for 12 months of former Reform UK county councillor Daniel Taylor for controlling and coercive behaviour towards his wife.
Advance UK’s national deputy director moved swiftly to point out that Restore Britain’s unregistered status meant it could not fight elections under its own banner, and lodged a complaint with the Electoral Commission.
No candidate
In the event, the nomination deadline passed on 11 March without a Restore Britain candidate appearing.
Reform UK is running Marc Rattigan, a local nursery school owner, Thanet district councillor and, until eleven days before his selection, a Conservative, with Robert Jenrick visiting the constituency to drum up support.
A Facebook group assembled in Sergeant’s orbit that has now accumulated over 300 members including individuals promoting MAGA and Christian nationalist content on an industrial scale.
Sharpened hostility
The ‘migration emergency’ motion’s cancellation has sharpened hostility between Reform and the Conservatives who surrendered control to Reform in the council elections of last May.
A Reform UK source accused the Conservatives of “trying to silence debate on illegal immigration because they’re ashamed of their record.”
Cllr Andrew Kennedy, the Conservative group whip who lodged the Electoral Commission complaint, countered that the rules were clear: taxpayer-funded resources must not be used to give any political party a partisan advantage during an election period.
