Mrs Badenoch said Reform at KCC are not united and claiming credit for savings that the Tories had already identified while still in office
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has taken a swipe at the new Reform UK administration at Kent County Council (KCC) claiming it is “making a mess” of it.
Mrs Badenoch said Reform at KCC are not united and claiming credit for savings that the Tories had already identified while still in office.
She was speaking at Brands Hatch on Monday morning (December 15) to announce Conservative proposals to end Labour’s 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars if the Tories win the next general election.
Before the May elections, when Reform UK entered County Hall with 57 of the 81 seats, Mrs Badenoch acknowledged they would be “challenging” for the Tories. Her party, which once had more than 60 seats at KCC, now only has five members.
She said: “I think a lot of people who voted for Reform in Kent can see the mess they’re making at KCC and I am going to be making sure that people can see the difference the Conservatives are making.
“I think the fact that many of the people who were elected on a Reform ticket are no longer Reform councillors speaks volumes. They can’t keep themselves together – they are not united.
“They really do not really have a single shared purpose – we do. I’m not saying the Conservatives were perfect but, actually, we run councils well.
“A lot of the savings Reform say they have made are savings that the Conservatives found so they are not even being honest about what they are doing.”
A Reform UK Kent spokesman said: “Kemi should look closer to home for chaos. Her party has trashed Sevenoaks District Council, where nine Tory councillors resigned and triggered an embarrassing vote of no confidence against their own leader.
“Whilst the Tories in Kent tear themselves apart, we’ve been cleaning up the mess they left for us in Kent County Council, making tens of millions of pounds of savings, saving the council from bankruptcy and getting on with the job of improving services for residents.”
Mrs Badenoch was at Brands Hatch to publicise her party’s plan to end the Labour government’s 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars and cut the legal requirement on car manufacturers to sell electric vehicles.
She said the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate is a “well-meaning but ultimately destructive piece of legislation” but no longer makes sense.
In five years time, all new cars will have to be either electric or hybrid in a government bid to meet the legally binding aim of achieving “net zero” targets by 2050.
Six EU countries have already signalled a rethink of plans to get rid of petrol and diesel cars by 2035 amid concerns it could damage competitiveness.
Mrs Badenoch said: “In 2019, the Conservatives did have a net zero policy but it’s not working. Even in 2019, I stood up and said that this needs to be achievable and affordable.
“It is quite clear it is neither and this ZEV mandate is not something the car manufacturers can deliver. And even the EU looks like it is going to drop this policy
“The reality is that the EU’s change of heart on EVs will leave Labour even more isolated, and by pressing ahead alone, we are placing our domestic industry at a disadvantage while giving others the opportunity to dominate global supply chains.”
Jonathan Palmer, CEO of MotorSport Vision (MSV), which runs Brands Hatch, said: “We all know that electric vehicles are great machines and will play a big role in the future of transport.
“But what we have got to be really careful of is that the rate of change and progression towards electric vehicles is not so fast that it damages the economy and damages manufacturing.”
Mr Palmer said that a decade ago, the UK made 1.7m cars but that has dropped to 750,000 and is partly because people are not buying electric vehicles in the volumes anticipated. “It needs more time,” he added.
Earlier, Mr Palmer drove the Conservative leader three times around the Brands Hatch circuit at up to 130mph in a McLaren Artura G4 super car.
