Kent County Council to Stop Supplying Citizenship Test Guide to Prison Libraries, Says Council Leader

Kent County Council has moved to stop supplying prisoners with a Home Office handbook that helps people pass the British citizenship test, after its Reform UK leader discovered copies were being ordered through the county's library service.

Linden Kemkaran, Leader of Kent County Council and Reform UK county councillor for Maidstone Southeast, said in a video posted to her X account on 9 October: "We've discovered that foreign national prisoners have been ordering a certain book from our libraries here in Kent - it's a handbook called 'Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents'. And do you know what it's a guide for? Yes you've guessed it - passing the British citizenship test." She said she had written to the council's head of libraries "to request that he immediately halts the provision of the book to all Kent prison libraries and puts an immediate stop on the ordering of the book from any external Kent libraries from inside Kent prisons", adding: "I do not believe that a Reform led county council should have any part in helping foreign nationals who've broken the law to pass their citizenship test."

Kent County Council runs the library service that supplies books to prisons across the county, including HMP Maidstone, a category C prison in the county town that accommodates foreign national prisoners.

Source: Linden Kemkaran / X