Reform UK Pushes Ceremonial Traditions at Kent County Council
Kent County Council is set to vote on whether to open its full council meetings with the Lord’s Prayer and the national anthem, after a committee backed the proposals put forward by the Reform UK-led authority.
The committee passed both motions, referring them to a full council meeting for a final decision. The move has drawn sharp criticism from opposition councillors across party lines.
The Case for Tradition
Richard Palmer, the Reform councillor who chairs the council, defended the proposals on straightforwardly cultural grounds. “We are a Christian nation,” he told the committee.
Fellow Reform councillor Garry Sturley described the national anthem as “just a standard patriotic tradition”, while Palmer added that there was “nothing wrong with being loyal to the crown, nothing wrong with being loyal to this country.”
Maxine Fothergill of Restore Britain offered a pragmatic concession, suggesting that any councillors uncomfortable with the prayer were “welcome to sit it out and come in when the clergy has finished.”
Opposition Pushes Back
Critics from the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats raised objections on both procedural and principled grounds. Green group leader Mark Hood argued the council “should operate in a wholly secular manner to respect the followers of all religions and none.”
Liberal Democrat group leader Antony Hook called it “really inappropriate to, in this workplace, take on a religious practice.” Opposition councillors also noted the irony of introducing time-consuming ceremonial additions following earlier discussions about streamlining meetings.
Hood warned that constituents would regard the move as “absolutely bonkers”, and objected equally to the anthem proposal, arguing: “If people want to sing songs, then by all means sing the songs elsewhere.”
Legal Complication Over Broadcasting
The council’s own monitoring officer advised that the Lord’s Prayer could not legally be included in the council’s livestream of meetings — a significant procedural obstacle given the authority’s transparency obligations.
The committee nonetheless passed the motion with an amendment permitting the prayer to be broadcast, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Both motions will now proceed to a full council vote.