A Reform UK council leader has said that police should be given the “proper backing” to “shoot people if necessary”. Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran argued that police officers who discharge firearms are left in genuine fear for their lives and should not be prosecuted or “dragged through the courts”.

Speaking to Times Radio, Ms Kemkaran said officers should not be “held up like a criminal” if they discharge their firearm if they “genuinely think that either their life, their colleagues’ life or members of the public’s lives are about to be put in danger”. She added that the police should be given the power to fire at those who pose a risk to officers or members of the public.

Ms Kemkaran said: “We must give our police force the proper backing to be able to do their job, to catch the criminals, to shoot people if necessary, if they feel that that person is going to present a real and present danger to either themselves and the police or to members of the public.

“You know, look at the police that have been dragged through the courts simply for doing their job. I think it’s disgusting.

“I think what we need to do, if a police officer discharges their firearm because they genuinely think that either their life, their colleagues’ life or members of the public lives are about to be put in danger, that police officer should not be dragged through the courts and be held up like a criminal when they’re not.”

She added that it is a “miracle if you see a police officer on the streets” because there are not enough officers.

She admitted that when she does see an officer she feels “sorry for them, because I know that if they do their job, if they actually try and stop a crime from being committed, the chances are they’ll find themselves in court being held up for gross misconduct”.

Ms Kemkaran appeared on the show to discuss Reform’s new tough-on-crime measures, outlined by Nigel Farage.

The party leader committed to spending more than £17bn on policies to halve crime in the UK if he becomes prime minister at the next election.

At a press conference on Monday, Farage pledged to force councils run by Reform to host new prisons “if they’re the right locations” and to recruit a “higher and physically tougher” standard of police officers.