A boast by a Reform UK councillor that he ensured the removing of “trans-ideological materials and books” from the youngsters’s part of his county’s libraries has fallen flat after it emerged that no such materials ever existed there.
Paul Webb, the cupboard member for communities at Kent council, whose portfolio covers libraries, posted a video to X through which he mentioned he had been “just lately contacted by a involved member of the general public who discovered trans-ideological materials and books within the youngsters’s part of one among our libraries”.
He mentioned: “I’ve regarded into this and this was the case. I’ve at this time issued directions for all of them to be faraway from the youngsters’s part of any of our libraries.
“They don’t belong within the youngsters’s part of our libraries. Our youngsters don’t should be instructed they have been born within the improper physique. So from at this time it will cease.”
Webb’s message was retweeted by Linden Kemkaran, the council chief, who in her own message, dotted with hearth emojis, mentioned: “One other victory for #commonsenseinKent my sensible cupboard member Cllr Paul Webb has simply acquired this trans materials REMOVED from the youngsters’s sections of all Kent’s libraries. Telling youngsters they’re within the ‘improper physique’ is improper and easily unacceptable.”
Kemkaran’s tweet included a photograph of a ebook known as The Autistic Trans Information to Life on what appeared to be a library show shelf, subsequent to an indication about Pleasure occasions.
Some native residents expressed doubt on the narrative, with the native information web site the Kent Present noting that in accordance with the county’s library system, all five copies of the book were kept in the adult nonfiction section, whereas the {photograph} gave the impression to be of a show on the entrance of Herne Bay library, not its youngsters’s part.
When requested about this by the Guardian, Kent council mentioned it might verify that no books geared toward adults about transgender points had been held within the youngsters’s sections of Kent libraries.
It confirmed that the grievance was a couple of ebook on present close to a library entrance which had since been “relocated to a piece that’s unlikely to be visited by youngsters”.
In a press release the Reform-led council mentioned: “Kent county council have confirmed that youngsters should not and won’t be uncovered to grownup transgender literature in our libraries.
“Employees on the county’s 99 libraries have been requested to make sure that books are at all times stocked in age-appropriate classes and that no grownup literature makes its approach into areas particularly geared toward youngsters, or the place youngsters will likely be deciding on books, equivalent to the general public welcome shows.
“It follows suggestions from a resident who noticed a transgender ebook geared toward adults in a public show on the entrance of 1 library in Kent. The ebook has since been relocated to a piece that’s unlikely to be visited by youngsters.”
