Row as Reform councillors back spending £150,000 on political advisers

Independent

5 days ago

Reform UK councillors have come under fire over plans to spend £150,000 on political advisers despite vowing to cut costs.
George Finch, the 19-year-old leader of Warwickshire county council, put forward the plans, which were narrowly approved, on Tuesday.
The money would pay for publicly funded political advisers for Reform and the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, the two next largest parties on the council.
Despite losing a vote over climate change, Reform pushed through the £150,000 spending plans.
Green councillor Sam Jones told The Guardian: 'Reform have had a sniff of power, they're making it so clear that they never cared a jot for the will of their supporters. No to overpaid, unelected bureaucrats before the election, but yes to up to £150,000 of unfunded spending on political assistants now the campaigning is over.'
And Lib Dem councillor George Cowcher said: 'These proposals are all about spending some money so they can have a chum in their group and I think that is not particularly helpful given the financial state of this council.'
The spending plans come after Reform's success in the May local elections, during which it campaigned on a promise of cutting costs and boosting efficiency.
It has copied Elon Musk and Donald Trump 's Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) unit, sending teams of software engineers and data analysts into local authorities to identify wasteful spending.
Reform's Doge unit is led by former party chairman Zia Yusuf, who quit and then returned to a prominent role in the party after 48 hours following a row over calls to ban the burqa.
Sending the Doge unit into Kent county council last month, Mr Yusuf said: '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.'
The row over political advisers at Warwickshire county council threatens to undermine the party's promise to ruthlessly cut costs and save local taxpayers' cash.
Mr Finch defended the plans, challenging councillors who opposed not to take advantage of the funding.
Mr Finch took over Warwickshire county council temporarily after the previous council leader, also a member of Reform, resigned just weeks after being elected.
On Tuesday he was voted in as the leader of Warwickshire County Council, which has £1.5bn of assets and a budget of around £500m.