After the Reform party took over local government in Kent, in May 2025, their leader, Linden Kemkaran, announced they would focus on saving money. A special department would be set up, DOLGE, to identify and eliminate wasteful expenditure.
Knowing that the previous Conservative regime had done the utmost to make the books balance by cutting costs at the expense of the vulnerable, many of us were sceptical of this new effort. It seemed to be copy-cat of the Trump administration calling in Musk and team to do a DOGE-style purge of public employees they disagreed with.
Who would lose their jobs at KCC? Wanting to know more about their rationale, I signed up to some newsletters that might shed light on their criteria.
A ‘nationwide scandal’
One such notification arrived from ‘Restore Britain – the unofficial sub-stack’ on 19 November. This consisted of a short clip of Restore Britain journalist Lewis Brackpool, who declared that “as part of our wider investigation into council spending we take a look at KCC” and “more councils to come – this is a nationwide scandal”.
Friends of Bylines Network
There has never been a greater need for grassroots journalism that investigates the stories that really matter, holds power to account and champions the voices of everyday citizens. We are proudly powered by volunteers but what we do isn’t free.
STAND WITH US for independent, citizen-led journalism that makes democracy stronger, and you will even get some exclusive benefits.
The “scandal” is that “large amounts of money”, specifically £5.2mn, is spent on “ideological and administrative” activities that “take employees away from frontline services”. There are too many jobs, he suspects, with soft titles, like “inclusion” which thereby reduce SEND support (that is for neurodivergent children), and make spending harder to track. These are “ideological overheads”.
This was based on a Freedom of Information (FOI) request sent to KCC by Rupert Lowe about the number of jobs with ‘Equality’ in the title, in April 2025, which is before the Reform party even took over local government.
This reveals how they were trying to position themselves at that time, and develop a manifesto on these issues. Commendable that they were trying to get the facts on which to base a policy!
KCC’s FOI request
FOI responses from public bodies are readily searchable. Kay Parminter for KCC responded on 16 April to Rupert Lowe’s questions.
Lowe enquired about the amount of salaries paid for work surrounding ‘Equality’, to which Parminter stated that there was only one job with it in the title, but all staff must work within the framework of diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI). He then asked about how much money was spent on DEI training, followed by which DEI networks the staff participate in. To this, Parminter provided the training courses, hours, and networks.
The gist of Brackpool’s regurgitation of Lowe’s concerns is that too much money, £5.2mn, he says, is being spent by public authorities on “ideological and administrative” jobs. Adding to the DEI list, he also tosses in climate change and net zero emissions. My concern is whether this type of thinking is actually shaping what KCC is doing under the leadership of the Reform Party.
The truth behind KCC’s 5.2mn figure
As I had just written an article for KSB about SEND provision for neurodivergent children, I was particularly concerned about Brackpool’s assertion that DEI expenditure was taking money away from SEND.
But the response from KCC is reassuring. The list of training courses looks satisfactory and not at all exorbitant for a body that employs some 12,000 people in non-school roles and 30,000 within schools, about £128 per employee across 30 months.
The trick of bedazzling readers by quoting large sums of money, much greater than each individual can ever earn, is one ruse used in false arguments about public money. KCC budget is over £1bn each year.
Using figures from 2023, 2024, and halving the 2025 one (to make up the 30 months in the calculation) from appendix G on the KCC website, (put forward after a pay award for public health employees) reveals a total of some £3.7bn.
Thus the £5.2mn is only 0.14% of this, which is rather meagre for a training budget. In South Africa, where for a time I was active in a staff union that negotiated on such matters, there is a skills levy of 1% of the annual pay roll amount which must be spent on training each year.
To be fair to KCC, the £5.2mn is only attached to the categories of training listed in the podcaster’s questions on DEI and climate change. KCC employees might well be also undergoing training for new computer apps, for health and safety, or other procedures essential for their paid tasks.
The argument of the podcast that public funds are being misspent comes from the underlying assumptions of the political right that it is good to cut taxes, which appeals to libertarians who prefer individual wealth to public good.
But this speaker adds a murmur of compassion – be kind to SEND children instead.
The hypocrisy of targeting ‘ideology’
The thrust of this argument asserting that something is wrong about training employees in DEI and climate change is misplaced. Recent reports from the human resources division is findable via the KCC website.
They reveal that 79.6% of staff are female (64% in the leadership category), 11.5% are from an ethnic minority, and 6.2% are disabled. Training in DEI would be applicable for how they treat each other, in their shared working functions and places, and also how they operate in their public facing roles.
Wouldn’t you rather interact with a trained person than an untrained? Especially when you are trying to get assistance in your weakest life phases, perhaps needing housing, or advice with a child who needs SEND facilities, or getting a financial assessment for a relative needing residential care in dementia?
The underlying assertion of Rupert Lowe and his pals is that training for DEI is superfluous and a waste of money because it is ‘ideology’. As if what they are peddling via their Reform Britain substack is not also ideology!
And it is the type of ideology that is caught and not taught. No need for training into it because it thrives and spreads on deep seated prejudices, unexamined assumptions and false use of facts and figures.
I also listened to a further podcast from the same crew, which jumped from populist slogan to slogan:
- “Out-of-touch politicians…out of control British state”.
- “Organs of state unfit for purpose”.
- “Parliament is a charade”.
- “Free speech doesn’t exist in Britain”.
- “Lucy Connolly…” (who was found guilty under 1986 Public Order Act of stirring up racial hatred in a social media post after the Southport killings).
On that particular example of ‘free speech’, the insightful remark of Surrey MP Zoe Franklin applies: “free speech ends where harm begins”.
No matter how irritated we may feel at the torrent of prejudice, and spurious fact-finding, it is important to take the arguments of this lot seriously, because Reform is leading local government in Kent, and several other places in England. Polls are predicting they may gain enough votes even to form a national government at the next election.
Restore Britain
It is important to note that Rupert Lowe, although elected as MP (Great Yarmouth) on the Reform ticket has since split from Farage. He then set up Restore Britain, which I had assumed was being promoted by the podcasts as mentioned above.
But then I noted that the 19 November one was listed as an Unofficial substack of Restore Britain and states that it is not linked to Lowe. This is in spite of the fact that Lewis Brackpool is still listed as director of Investigations @Restore Britain. So, who is this right-wing zoo?
I tossed the enquiry to someone much more experienced than me in investigative journalism, namely the indomitable Bill Doult, esteemed Kent and Surrey Bylines writer.
Tune in to the next article to read about his adventures through this enquiry.
