“We live rent free in their heads, they can’t get rid of us”

Following Reform’s double by-election win in Rochester East and Warren Wood in February, we previously interviewed group leader Cllr David Finch. We now follow that up with his fellow Reform UK councillor, John Vye. We met at the Ship and Trades in Chatham and tried to talk about what brought him to Medway, why he joined Reform, and the differences between being a parish and unitary councillor…

What ward are you the councillor for?
Rochester East and Warren Wood.

Why that ward?
Well, there was two vacancies for councillors to stand in the last by-election.

Do you live in the ward?
No.

Where in Medway do you live?
Cuxton. Just down the road from the other (Reform) councillor.

Did you know each other before the by-election?
No. I met him at the Reform meeting on St Mary's Island on my first day.

Which political parties have you been a member of?
Reform.

You were never interested in UKIP or Brexit?
No.

What made you join Reform?
I fell out with the mainstream parties we got. The morning I joined Reform, I thought, ‘I don't see what they're wrong about.’

How long was there between joining Reform and standing for election?
Four months.

Had you been active in politics before Reform?
Parish council.

How long have you been a parish councillor for?
Oh gosh. Twenty... It must have been three years. I went in halfway through because I was co-opted into the council.

Was there a reason you decided to stand for parish council?
Yes, actually. The vacancy had been vacant for about three months. I thought, ‘Well, what's the matter, let's do that.’

When you said you were fed up with the main parties, was there a particular issue or event?
They just took no notice of what the people wanted, what they voted for. They said what they're going to stand for, and as soon as they get voted in, they change what they sign up for.

What was the tipping point? What made you finally go, actually I am going to join?
Well, the country's going down the pan. Labour, Conservatives, they're just a uni-party. What one's done, the others done.

What was it about Reform that they stood out against the others?
Well, basically Nigel was the MEP and he got us out of Europe on Brexit. It was the only party really that stood there to do it. Went on for that really.

You supported Brexit?
Yeah, I voted for it.

Why did you vote for Brexit?
Fed up of Europe telling us, dictate what we've got to do, what we haven't got to do. All their stupid things they kept bringing in. You've got this, you've got to do that. It's just getting silly. We're a sovereign country. We've been dictated to by European Unionists.

What was your experience of the by-election?
It was good, yeah. Hard work. Especially at my age. Dave (Cllr Finch) was running round like a youngster, and there's me plodding along behind him.

Since then, Reform have gone on to win Kent County Council and win other by-elections in borough councils. Why do you think Reform are doing so well in Kent?
Well, it's a new, fresh party, got new politics. All the other parties are the same. All got the same policies, but dressed up to make it look better. Reform seems to come and say, ‘We're going to do this, and we're going to do that,’ and seems to be doing it. They say, ‘Go do it.’ Like Kent County Council, now Reform run it, they say ‘We're going to do this,’ and they've been in and done it, or sorted it. Whereas the others say, ‘We're going to sort it,’ and three years later, they're going to do it, ‘We'll think about it now.’

During the last full council at Medway, the administration decided to spend a lot of time asking questions that were all about Reform. What did you think of that?
I think you already know that, Steve. We live rent free in their heads, they can't get rid of us. We are rent free (laughs). That's all they can ever think about and ask about.

There have been a number of anti-immigration protests at hotels around the country. Would you welcome those protests in Medway?
I won't comment on that, because I won't welcome them, no. If people want to do it, it's up to them. I wouldn't attend one myself, being a councillor.

But you understand why they're protesting?
Well, they want their country back.

What are your thoughts on travellers in the area? Are they welcome?
Well, my constituents don't think so anyway. They keep emailing me about it. As soon as they go on the field (Jackson’s), I've got an email about, ‘They've entered the field again.’ I've left a note before to the parks people that they're in. I did ask about having a site for them, but at the moment, the new Local Plan's not through yet. Until we get the new Local Plan through, I don't think they're going to have a park for them at the moment.

The council finally passed the Local Plan. You didn't vote for it.
No.

What were your reasons for not voting for the plan?
Didn't like the plan. Didn't like the way it was done. It seems to be putting the houses up on the greenbelt, a lot of greenbelt housing, and also I didn't like where they're saying about the Chatham Docks, how they want to demolish the businesses down here to build new flats or houses or whatever they want.

Did you have any thoughts on where the housing should go to meet that demand, but also get the plan through?
My opinion is they need to build more flats in towns. When they demolish the small places to build flats. But unfortunately, with the planning regulations, you can only have so many flats, so many houses, and so many bungalows. You can't overload the flats.

Where were you born?
Sussex.

What brought you to the Medway towns?
I bought my house. I don’t know now. I saw there was a house up for sale, and I bought it.

How long have you lived in Cuxton?
Seven years.

Was this a retirement thing?
Yeah. It was quiet, until the church bells ring (laughs). Though I can’t hear them because I am partly deaf.

What job did your parents do when you were growing up?
My father was a car repairer. Mother was a housewife. Traditional.

Did you enjoy school?
It was alright. Give and take.

What age did you leave school?
That's a hard question. Must have been about 15, but then you got thrown out, unless you were clever and went to college.

Did you go straight into employment?
Yeah.

What was your first full-time job?
Building.

Have you worked in the building trade in your life?
Yeah.

Did you have an area of speciality?
I started at the bottom and worked my way to the top. Started off labouring jobs, ended up being a finisher on the new properties.

You've been retired for seven years now?
A bit more now. I retired a couple of years before I moved up here.

Do you have any additional roles, paid or unpaid?
Just the councillor's money and the pension.

How is being a parish councillor different to being a unitary councillor?
The parish council is non-political to start with. There's no political party involved, it's neutral. A lot of difference is, with the unitary council, it's more rules, more standing orders and things. The parish councils, it's not so much in standing orders, they discuss things and either agree or disagree, and that's it. Got no power at all. No power on anything, really. If a plan comes in, they can say we don't like it, object to it, but that's all. Just send it to the unitary to say we reject it, or can we have some money to repair something when they say yes or no.

Do you have a working relationship with Cuxton’s unitary councillors?
Yeah, well, we've got Phil (Filmer) and Matt (Fearn). We get along okay.

What are your thoughts regarding local government reorganisation?
It needs stopping.

Because...
I've got a few words for you now, haven't I? It's making it too big to start with. But not enough people running it. They're going to cut a lot of jobs. A lot of councillors are going to be cut out of it all. A lot of the executives are going to be cut out, and you're going to have a few executives running it. I can see it coming down, they're going to end up with all consultants running it. As I say, if something's working okay, why change it?

There's an argument that things aren't working okay, because the councils are facing financial difficulty.
No comment.

Do you like the idea of a mayor for Kent?
Not really, no. If it’s a Reform mayor, then, yes. But the Mayor has too much power. If we decide that, I'm still on Medway at the time, we're going to object to some houses going in on an estate, it seems that the mayor can overrule us and say, ‘No, they're going to be built,’ and that's why I'm against the mayor, really.

But if it were a Reform mayor, it would be okay?
Yeah, I think it would be okay, because then there would be Nigel in power. I think it wouldn’t be kowtowing to the government so much. Whereas at the moment they say, ‘Jump,’ and they say, ‘How high?’

Did you have any involvement with the Kent County Council elections?
Yeah, I've done a little bit for them. Like I say, I’m a bit old now. If it is hot weather, I just can't run around too much. It gets like that when you are old.

What does an average day entail?
Well, I check my emails and answer them, that is a couple of hours gone. Take the dog for a walk. Go to Rochester East and Warren Wood Ward to see if everything is okay. Then I might pop down to the allotment. I am on land management on the parish council.

What type of dog have you got?
Jack Russell. Wirey-haired one.

What do you grow on your allotment?
Vegetables. When it grows.

Are you very green-fingered?
No.

What do you find the biggest challenge with the allotment?
All of them damn stones in the ground. It's full of flints down there.

How long have you had the allotment for?
Oh, so, five years.

What do you do to unwind and relax?
Have a beer. Sit on my veranda with a beer.

Have you ever seen a film or a TV show that showed the building trade well?
Not really, no. You get a lot of these DIYs, doing it with the help of somebody. You get some of these guys building some very prestigious places, but they cut out all the bits on how they do it. You just see bits of it, and you see the finished product.

What is your favourite film?
I don't watch films.

What book have you read recently you would recommend?
I don’t read books.

If you were to do a soundtrack of your life, what would be some of the tracks?
There's a lot of tracks I actually like. We're talking about going back to the 60s, 70s, 80s, down that end of the world, not what we've got today.

Give us some examples.
I can't think of any of them.

Any particular artists, musicians?
Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Cream.

Do you play any instruments yourself?
No. Tone deaf.

Is your hearing loss to do with being a worker in the building trade?
Hearing has been bad for a long time, but no particular reason. Can't do nothing with it.

Do you wear a hearing aid at all?
No, I tried one, but I've got a bit of that thing where part of the hearing spectrum is missing. When they go to hearing aids, it amplified what's around it as well.

Who is the most famous person you are one degree of separation from?
That's a bloody hard one. When I email, I get nothing back. Carol.

Who is Carol?
My partner.

Is she famous for anything in particular?
No.

Have you been together long?
She remembers everything. No, I can't remember. It's been years I've spent with her.

You met before you came to Medway?
Yeah.

How'd you meet?
Well, it'd be out one night, and she had to be in the pub the same as me, and I'd talk to her, and that was that. Done and dusted.

What does she do?
Nothing, retired.

What did she do before she retired?
Oh. That's a difficult one, actually. I don't really know.

Do you have any children?
Yeah, two.

What do they do now?
I haven’t got a clue.

Are you not close?
No.

Where do they live?
One is in Sussex, the other one's over in (pause) Somerset, I think.

Who's been the best Prime Minister of your lifetime?
The best one? Maggie Thatcher.And then Nigel Farage, when he gets there.

Thatcher because?
She's done what she said. She said she's going to do it, she's done it. When the Falkland Wars turned up, she went straight out and done it. None of this arguing, shall we or shall we not. Went straight out and done it. That's the only reason, apart from other things I didn’t agree with. With the Falklands, we had been invaded, and we got out there and sorted it.

Where'd you like to go for dinner in Medway?
Oh, I prefer the barbecue on my veranda, it's lovely, if it's sunny (laughs).

What's your favourite thing to cook?
Oh, normal stuff. Burgers, bits of old chicken and stuff.

Do you ever travel into Rochester for somewhere to eat?
No.

What's an unpopular opinion that you have?
I don't know. I’ve never thought about it.

If you go for a drink with friends or with other Reform people, is there something you find yourself disagreeing with them about?
No, not really.

Everyone's very amiable.
Oh, yes. They're Reform members.

If someone was looking to become a parish councillor, what advice would you have for them?
Go and sign up, paperwork. If you've got to stand for election, put your name down. If you're co-opting, send a letter to the clerk saying you wish to fill the vacancy. And when they want your CV or whatever the question is, they want done, do it.

But why should they? What's a good reason to do it?
If they want to do it, go and fill the vacancy.

Is there a reason you'd recommend that someone do it?
Well, if they wanted to do it, do they? If they didn't want to do it, I wouldn't say to them, ‘Go and stand on the council,’ would I?

Footnotes

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

You can read our previous interviews here.

If you want to suggest ideas or send tips for people to interview, email Steven.

Steven Keevil still manages to watch hundreds of films a year. He recommends The Substance. He listened to no music whilst writing this, but recommends reading Centrism: The Story of an Idea by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynsey.