Reform launches Elon Musk-style council 'DOGE' drive with the help of a mystery business mogul… as Nigel Farage eyes win in Scottish by-election
Reform UK says it will send in its first Elon Musk-style Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) unit to look at 'wasteful spending' in councils.
A team of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors will 'visit and analyse' local authorities it controls, starting today with Kent County Council.
It follows the US Doge, which was launched during Donald Trump 's presidency with the Tesla billionaire in charge to cut federal spending.
Reform says its UK version will be led by a yet-unnamed man described as one of the country's 'leading tech entrepreneurs with a specialism in data analytics who has also been a turnaround CEO'.
However its previous efforts to root out what it sees as unnecessary spending by authorities it controls have so far struggled to make any impact.
New Greater Lincolnshire mayor Andrea Jenkyns vowed to remove diversity officers from the county council, which later confirmed it did not employ any.
And a recent claim by party chairman Zia Yusuf that the party would scrap low traffic neighbourhoods in the 10 council areas it controls was undone when it was found that there were none.
It comes as Nigel Farage visits Scotland to press the party's hopes of winning its first seat in the Scottish Parliament.
Mr Farage will give a press conference in Aberdeen on Monday as the race in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election enters its final days.
While the SNP and Labour were seen as frontrunners in the seat in a contest sparked by Scottish Government minister Christina McKelvie, Reform UK has entered the mix ahead of the vote.
But the party has come in for criticism for how it has campaigned in the seat, with attack ads on Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar being branded racist.
Both of the frontrunners have also turned their attacks on Reform, with Mr Sarwar describing Mr Farage as a 'poisonous little man' and the First Minister accusing him of bringing 'racism and hatred' to the South Lanarkshire race.
Further south in England, the party said that the unit being sent to Kent will use artificial intelligence, advanced data analysis tools and forensic auditing techniques to 'identify wasteful spending and recommend actionable solutions'.
Reform took control of the authority in May and leader Linden Kemkaran has already ordered the Ukrainian flag be removed from the council chamber.
A letter sent to the council read: 'The scope of the review includes but is not limited to: Contractual arrangements with suppliers and consultants, all capital expenditure, use of framework agreements and direct awards, any off-book or contingent liabilities, use of reserves and financial resilience, any audit flags raised by internal or external auditors in the last three years.
'We request that all relevant council officers provide the Doge team with full and prompt access to: Council-held documents, reports and records (electronic and paper), relevant finance, procurement, audit and contract data, meeting minutes and correspondence concerning major procurements, any internal investigations or whistleblowing reports relevant to financial matters, any additional documents that might be of assistance.'
It added: '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.'
It is signed by Mrs Kemkaran, party chairman Zia Yusuf and Mr Farage.
A Kent County Council spokesman declined to comment.
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