Tunbridge Wells Councillor

The Conservative Kent County Councillor, Becki Bruneau, has defected to the Heritage Party and criticised her former Conservative colleagues.

Becki Bruneau said she has joined the Heritage Party because it is the only one “that actually cares about British people” and does not “discriminate” against Christians.

The Heritage Party doesn't believe rising carbon dioxide emissions are a threat to the planet's climate.

Cllr Bruneau, who represents Tunbridge Wells South on Kent County Council, claims ordinary citizens have become “cash cows to be milked” but taxes are not being spent on them.

In a posting on the Heritage Party website, she said the county deserves to have “to have all heads of departments in Kent County Council actually living in Kent and not hundreds of miles away”.

It is believed to be a reference to a number of senior officials who are understood to work remotely from other areas of England and Wales.

The Heritage Party was set up in 2020 by David Kurten, a former member of UKIP who was a member of the London Assembly.

Cllr Bruneau took a swing at Conservative councillors alleging they put their own agenda and interests before residents.

She claims Tories in Kent should “stop pushing the false narrative that devolution is about putting residents first, when in fact it will concentrate power in the hands of distant regional Mayors and disempower local people and communities, just like in former Communist countries”.

Cllr Bruneau wrote on the Heritage Party website: “Both national and local governments have become grossly financially incompetent and profligate, having shifted from serving their citizens to exploiting them as a revenue source.

“They no longer answer to the people: indeed, they disdain ordinary citizens while treating them like cash cows to be milked, and if you look around, it’s clear – whatever our taxes our funding, they’re not serving us.”

She said her move to the Heritage Party is powered by a belief it will prevent the “aggressive agenda against the British public by the Con/Lab/LibDem/Green Uni-party in government today”.

She added her new party has a policy to “stop the invasion of our shores”.

Cllr Bruneau said the British people deserve not to be “lied to about Net Zero, a fake ‘climate emergency’ or frightened into believing that CO2 is dangerous”.

KCC declined to comment.

County councillor and Kent Conservative Party chairman Dylan Jeffrey (pictured below) said: “Becki has always had forceful opinions but that’s the beauty of the Conservative Party. I hope that she finds somewhere where she feels more at home.

“When people leave, you can leave with humility and grace or you do it by throwing your toys out of the pram. You don’t diss the party that got you elected in the first place.”

Cllr Jeffrey said that there are “mixed views” among Conservatives about how devolution should happen, the abolition of all 14 local authorities in Kent and the shape of the new unitary authorities when they are formed.

On Cllr Bruneau’s claim that some KCC heads of department live “hundreds of miles away” from Kent, Cllr Jeffrey said that post-Covid many council workers adopted flexible working patterns.

He added: “I don’t see what the issue is if they are coming into Kent on a regular basis.”

Cllr Jeffrey also said that, for instance, social workers choose to live away from Kent due to the nature of their work.

KCC Conservative councillor Andrew Kennedy said: “She (Cllr Bruneau) must do what she must do. I don’t even know what the Heritage Party is but I am sure she’ll be at home there.”

Cllr Bruneau, who suffered serious ill health in recent years, said she has yet to decide to stand in May’s county elections.

WEST KENT RADIO'S MARTIN WEBBER ADDS:

Cllr Bruneau was formerly a member of the Tunbridge Wells Alliance Party before defecting to the Conservatives in 2020.

She has also been a strong campaigner recently against legalising assisted dying, reflecting on her own cancer illness and treatment.  

In November 2024 she told the BBC that the assisted dying being legal would create implicit pressure on those who were eligible for it.

The article explained that Becki Bruneau has cancer which has spread to her lungs. She is against any change to the law.

She told the BBC: “My absolute worry is that if I am in a position like I was two years ago, where I was in so much excruciating pain, and I don’t have someone with me, I could potentially make the wrong decision. And the wrong decision is not something you can come back from. You’re dead.”

The article stated that her view is partly informed by her religious beliefs but also that the bill would be a danger to people with disabilities or terminal illnesses.

See:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgr0ex0q8gwo