The new Reform leader of Kent County Council (KCC), Linden Kemkaran, sets out her plans to remove the Ukrainian flag from the chamber.
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00:00You've got a Ukrainian flag in the chamber right now. Is that going to be coming down soon?
00:03Yes.
00:05How quickly?
00:07Well, I don't know about timescales, but my point is, we are here to serve the residents of Kent.
00:13And if you'd been out on the campaign trail with me and my fellow councillors,
00:16you would have seen that some parts of this county are utterly, utterly destroyed.
00:21They've been neglected for years. The residents are, they're just in despair.
00:25But what's taking the Ukrainian flag down?
00:27I'll tell you what it's going to do.
00:29This is Kent County Council. We are here to represent the residents of Kent.
00:33A foreign war that's happening thousands of miles away is simply a distraction.
00:37We are here to serve the people of Kent. That's what we were elected on.
00:41That's what we're going to do.
00:42But thousands of the citizens now in Kent are from Ukraine.
00:45Refugees came over. They will say this feels like their voice is being heard by having the flag flown here.
00:51What would you say to that?
00:52I think the fact that they're here and they've come here legally and they've made their lives in Britain, some of them.
00:57Some of them have gone back home to Ukraine. Others may stay for a long time.
01:01That's absolutely marvellous. They're amazing people, the Ukrainians.
01:04They've contributed amazingly to our society.
01:06That's great. A flag doesn't change any of that.
01:08That's great.