Reform UK-run council pulls all trans books from children’s section

A Reform UK-run council has pulled all trans books from the children’s sections of its libraries. 

Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran took to X on Wednesday (2 July) to announce the removal of “trans material” from all children’s sections of libraries in Kent. 

The post read: “Another victory for #commonsenseinKent my brilliant cabinet member Cllr Paul Webb has just got this trans material REMOVED from the children’s sections of all Kent’s libraries.

“Telling children they’re in the ‘wrong body’ is wrong and simply unacceptable.” 

🔥Another victory for #commonsenseinKent 🔥my brilliant cabinet member Cllr Paul Webb has just got this trans material REMOVED from the children’s sections of all Kent’s libraries.

Telling children they’re in the ‘wrong body’ is wrong and simply unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/nDTKG5rZGQ

— Linden Kemkaran (@LeaderofKCC) July 2, 2025

Antony Hook, the Liberal Democrat leader of the opposition, described Kemkaran’s announcement to the BBC as “bizarre” due to it being made on social media, “rather than to the council”. He further called out the announcement as “vague” as it fails to clarify what books are being referred to. 

Kent County Council runs 99 community libraries and five mobile library vans. It’s not known how many books will be removed in relation to this announcement. Hook has written to the head of Kent Library services to ask for an update on what books are to be removed.

Paul Webb, Reform UK’s communities portfolio holder who oversees libraries, told the BBC that the move was decided after a “concerned member of the public” contacted him. 

He said of the decision: “My fellow Reform members and I believe that our young people should be protected from exposure to potentially harmful ideologies and beliefs such as those held by the trans lobbyists.”

Nigel Farage‘s right-wing populist political party was founded in 2018 as the Brexit Party and has since rebranded and made a name for itself because of its controversial anti-immigration and eurosceptic policies. Unsurprisingly, Reform UK has a poor record when it comes to the rights of LGBTQ+ people.

This week, Farage himself labeled the legislation that led to equal marriage in the UK “wrong”, and that he “didn’t support it”.

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