When far-right activists once again halted a Swale council meeting last week, the most striking development did not come from the public gallery but from Reform councillors who later appeared determined to excuse, and even endorse, the disruption.
And Reform’s rhetoric is earning them the backing of the extremists who have now twice caused meetings of Swale Borough Council to be suspended.
Aligned with far right
As Searchlight reported earlier this week, Wednesday’s meeting was suspended after anti-immigration activists shouted, applauded and heckled councillors during a debate on a so-called “border emergency”.
The motion, tabled by Reform UK group leader Richard Palmer and seconded by fellow Reform councillor Kieran Mishchuk, was rejected by an overwhelming majority. Yet what followed has exposed how closely Reform’s local representatives are aligning themselves with the far right.
Palmer has since defended both his motion and the conduct of those who disrupted the meeting and turned it into a platform for extremist rhetoric.
Liberal ‘wind up’
Interviewed by KentOnline, he blamed the disruption on Liberal Democrat councillor Hannah Perkin, claiming her description of the motion as “dog whistle politics” had “wound up the crowd”.
He went further, describing the activists – who yelled about “demographic replacement” and forced the meeting to be adjourned – as “quite well behaved”.
This indulgent response stands in sharp contrast to the reality. The disruption followed an earlier incident in December in which far-right activists caused £10,000 of damage to the council building.
Despite this history, Palmer characterised shouting from the gallery as “all part of the cut and thrust of politics”.
Reform UK’s response did not end there. After the motion was voted down, the party’s councillors staged what they later described as a walk-out in protest.
Reform are victims
In practice, their absence went unnoticed and appeared no different from the routine toilet break that followed the vote, a detail Reform councillor Mishchuk nevertheless chose to dramatise in a Facebook video.
That video, in which Mishchuk rails against fellow councillors and plays the victim on behalf of Reform, has since been enthusiastically promoted by local far-right figures.
Among them are Harry Hilden and Jodie Scott, also known as “Missus Kent”, both of whom figured prominently in the disruption of the two council meetings.
They have publicly pledged to continue disrupting council business. Hilden has posted messages of fulsome support for Mishchuk and the Reform group, while Scott has justified the disorder and framed it as legitimate protest.
The most recent trouble was initiated by Hilden yelling from the public gallery.
What is now clear is that Reform UK councillors in Swale are not merely courting controversy. By excusing disruption, amplifying far-right narratives and publicly backing extremist activists, they are helping to normalise behaviour that undermines local democracy itself.
