Reform UK councillor defends removing book from library welcome area as a move for 'child protection'

Reform councillor Linden Kemkaran told LBC that her team asked the library to remove the book featured in the welcome section and place it in the adult section after a 'concerned resident' made a complaint.

The book, The Autistic Trans Guide to Life, is described as an "essential survival guide that gives autistic trans and/or non-binary adults all the tools and strategies they need to live as their very best self."

She told Tom Swarbrick: "It was a book aimed at adults about being transgender.

"We asked the librarian to move that book away from the welcome section on the child-sized shelves of that library and put the book back in the adult section where it belongs.

"No books were banned, no books were taken out of libraries."

Read more: Reform UK pledges to repeal Online Safety Act branding it 'borderline dystopian'

Read more: Teenage Reform councillor elected permanent leader of Warwickshire County Council following knife-edge vote

When pressed on whether this was an 'appropriate use' of council time, Ms Kemkaran defended the council's action as necessary for "child protection which should be at the top of every politician's list."

She added: "If other politicians have put child safety above appeasing certain lobbyists and certain special interest groups, then we might have been spared the horrors of the rape gangs that have been popping up all over the country."

At the time, Ms Kemkaran wrote on X: "Telling children they’re in the wrong body is wrong and simply unacceptable."

Her comments about child protection come on the same day as Reform UK pledges to repeal the Online Safety Act, which aims to protect children from accessing harmful content by introducing age verification checks for certain websites.

Speaking during a press conference in Westminster, Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf branded the act as 'borderline dystopian' and a 'massive overreach'.

Ms Kemkaran said: "I think the best way we can protect children from the worst of the Internet is probably not to leave them alone with a smartphone or access to the Internet.

"That is the singular most important thing we can do to make sure that children are properly protected.

"It is the parent's responsibility, it is the teacher's responsibility. That is who should be policing what our children can and cannot see on screen."

Since taking on the role in May, she has announced plans to set up her version of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) called DOLGE (Department of Local Government Efficiency).

DOLGE is tasked with finding areas in which the council can cut costs to save money and is styled after Elon Musk's team that came under heavy fire when it made massive cuts to US spending.

One of these areas that Kent County Council is looking to make cuts is on the cost of transportation for SEND (Special Education Needs and Disabilities) pupils to and from school.

Ms Kemkaran said: "Home to School transport is one of the areas that costs Kent County Council nearly £100 million per year in its budget, £100 million to get children to and from school.

"Naturally, when that was brought to my attention, within a few days of me becoming leader, I nearly passed out. That is a huge amount of money.

"I've tasked my cabinet member for highways and transport to start pulling apart all the information surrounding taxi firms, minibuses, subsidised bus services.

"There has to be a cheaper way to do it and I'm determined to find that."