Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has hired a team of tech experts to conduct a DOGE-style root-and-branch review of wasteful spending in the local councils it took control of after wins at May’s elections in England.
Starting with the council in Kent on Monday, Reform has tasked a group of data analysts, forensic auditors, and software engineers, headed by a currently unnamed tech entrepreneur, with digging through the accounts of the 10 councils under its control and eliminating government waste and inefficiencies to save taxpayer money.
The project will be modelled on Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which, according to the Trump administration, has already saved an estimated $170 billion, or $1,056 per taxpayer.
Speaking with The Telegraph, Reform Chairman commented on the plan: “For too long, British taxpayers have watched their money vanish into a black hole. Their taxes keep going up, their bin collections keep getting less frequent, potholes remain unfixed, their local services keep getting cut.
“Reform won a historic victory on a mandate to change this. As promised, we have created a UK Doge to identify and cut wasteful spending of taxpayer money. Our team will use cutting-edge technology and deliver real value for voters.”
According to Reform’s council leader in Kent, Linden Kemkaran, the DOGE team plans to review all agreements with outside suppliers and consultants, among other financial arrangements, as well as any issues raised by auditors over the past three years.
The review will demand access to all data, documents, minutes, and correspondences regarding council spending, in addition to “any internal investigations or whistleblowing reports relevant to financial matters.”
In a letter to council chief executive Amanda Beer, Kemkaran said: “Should you resist this request, we are ready to pass a council motion to compel the same and will consider any obstruction of our councillors duties to be gross misconduct. We trust this will not be required.”
“This review is part of Reform’s commitment to transparency, accountability, the prudent management of public funds and the highest standards in public life,” she added.
“Conducting this work was a core part of Reform’s local manifesto. We believe it is in the public interest to ensure that the council’s financial and procurement systems are robust, lawful, and value-driven.”
It comes as Farage has begun to lay out elements of his planned economic agenda should Reform win the next general election and become the next party of government in Westminster.
Shifting further away from his Thatcherite roots, Farage has vowed that Reform UK will be the party of the working class, which he argues the left-wing Labour Party has abandoned.
As part of this pitch, the populist leader has announced plans to scrap the two-child benefits cap and provide a transferrable tax allowance between married people to help working-class people afford having families. He has also called for a reversal of Labour’s cuts to the winter fuel aid subsidies for pensioners and for eliminating income tax for those earning under £20,000.
Farage has said that he plans to pay for the benefits and tax cuts for the working class by eliminating the radical green Net Zero agenda, cutting diversity programmes, ending taxpayer-funded asylum seeker accommodation, and reducing government quangos. He claimed these measures would save the government an estimated £350 billion.
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