The leader of a Reform UK council has suggested they could abolish English language classes for immigrants.
Linden Kemkaran, the leader of Kent County Council, wanted to find out if the classes were “value for money”.
The Maidstone South East councillor suggested the use of language apps like Duolingo in order to save money.
It comes as Reform UK councils are claiming they want to emulate the US Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) in order to cut costs.
Linden Kemkaran said she would look into the classes
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Reform Councillors on Kent County CouncilPA
Under regulations set by the Department of Education, local authorities in England are allotted funding to offer adult education programmes.
It is up to local authorities to decide how to allocate the cash, subject to statutory requirements. Kent County Council (KCC) could, in theory, stop funding English as a Foreign Language (ESOL) provision and direct the money elsewhere.
However, the council cannot repurpose the central Government funding for anything other than adult skills programmes.
Asked if the proposal is incompatible, Kemkaran said: “We can absolutely be Reformers cancelling English classes for people who don’t speak the lingo, if it’s costing KCC a lot of money.”
Zia Yusuf quit as chairman of Reform UK in latest party turmoil
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Kent County Council was the centre of Reform’s Doge UK move spearheaded by former Chairman Zia Yusuf.
Yusuf, who quit Nigel Farage’s party in dramatic fashion last night, had appeared at County Hall in Maidstone earlier this week alongside Councillor Kemkaran and tech entrepreneur Nathaniel Fried.
Fried confirmed last night “leave with” Yusuf, writing on social media: “I have absolute confidence that the Reform Doge will succeed without me.”
Speaking about Yusuf’s resignation, leader of the Green Group at KCC, Councillor Rich Lehmann described the situation as “chaos”, telling KentOnline: “This bizarre and unexpected move feels like it could go one of two ways.
“On the one hand, the controversial flag policy and the rushed ‘Doge’ announcement both appeared on Yusuf’s Twitter feed before anywhere else, so there was a sense that, despite being an unelected bureaucrat, he was very much running things at KCC instead of the locally elected representatives.”
