Latest news with #ArronBanks
Daily Mail
08-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Crisis, what crisis? Reform welcomes Zia Yusuf back 48 hours after he quit as chairman - and he'll work with Brexiteer who accused him of having 'struggled with people'
Reform UK's deputy leader today said it was 'great news' that Zia Yusuf had returned to the party - just 48 hours after he walked out on his job as chairman. Richard Tice said Mr Yusuf had 'done a brilliant job in growing the party' and suggested he quit because of 'exhaustion' and working for 11 months 'without a day off'. The former banker abruptly U-turned on his decision to quit last night, returning to Reform to lead its plans to cut public spending. The ex-chairman will also take part in policymaking, fundraising and media appearances. However his decision to come back to lead the so-called 'UK Doge', based on the US Department of Government Efficiency formerly led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, may raise some eyebrows. He will be working alongside another millionaire, the Brexit backer Arron Banks, in councils run by Reform to route out supposed waste. Mr Banks, who stood as a Reform candidate in the local elections in May, said this morning that Mr Yusuf's return was 'an inspirational move' that played to the strengths of someone who was 'a brilliant communicator with the media and a genius on tech'. However, on Friday night, after Mr Yusuf resigned, he was less complimentary, tweeting: 'Zia worked very hard but struggled with relationships and people. The corks will be popping in party HQ this evening.. Reform will power on …' Mr Yusuf said he was quitting Reform following the latest in a series of internal rows, in which he described a question to the Prime Minister concerning a ban on burkas from his party's newest MP as 'dumb'. Party leader Nigel Farage, speaking to the Sunday Times newspaper alongside Mr Yusuf, said the former chairman will return and effectively be doing 'four jobs', though his title has not yet been decided. This morning it was put to Mr Tice that it does not look very professional for Reform's chairman to be in, out, then back in again. He told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: 'Zia Yusuf has done a brilliant job in growing the party, creating huge infrastructure, over 400 branches, but it's a massive job and as we were growing incredibly fast, essentially that job was too much for one person, so we're reorganising, and I'm delighted that Zia is staying with the party, and he's going to be focusing on our Doge unit. 'There is so much waste you've been talking about, how does the Government find more money? 'Well, the best thing is to stop wasting money. I'm afraid, what we're discovering as we look under the bonnet of the 10 councils that we are now in control of, is there's waste everywhere, and it's got to stop. 'That's what Zia is going to focus on, as well as fundraising. So it's great news he's with us.' Meanwhile, shadow home secretary Chris Philp called Reform UK a 'protest party' and said it is offering 'populist policies that are essentially Liz Truss on steroids'. Asked if it is time for the Conservatives to think about a more constructive approach to Reform, he told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News: 'Nigel Farage is saying he wants to destroy the Conservative Party, which makes it quite difficult to work together. 'I mean, they're all essentially a protest party. 'You just asked about Liz Truss… they're offering populist policies that are essentially Liz Truss on steroids.' Announcing his resignation on Thursday afternoon, Mr Yusuf said: 'I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time, and hereby resign the office.' Mr Yusuf said he had been left feeling undervalued by some in the party and drained after being subjected to relentless racist abuse on X, and that he made the comments in 'error'. He added: 'I spoke to Nigel and said I don't mind saying I made an error. It was a function of exhaustion.' Asked about the row over talk of banning the burka, Mr Yusuf said he 'certainly did not resign because I have any strong views about the burka itself' but felt blindsided by Sarah Pochin's question to Sir Keir Starmer. He said: 'If there were a vote and I was in Parliament, I would probably vote to ban it actually,' but that 'philosophically I am always a bit uneasy about banning things which, for example, would be unconstitutional in the United States, which such a ban no doubt would be'.
Telegraph
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
The curious case of the squatter archbishop
Justin Welby, former Archbishop of Canterbury, has finally left Lambeth Palace, I can disclose, months after formally standing down as Church of England primate. Welby resigned on January 6 over an alleged cover-up, but was allowed to stay at the palace as he did not own another home in the UK. He finally moved out last month. The two favourites to succeed him are Guli Francis-Dehqani, the Bishop of Chelmsford, and Graham Usher, the Bishop of Norwich. But we won't have a new 'ABC' until October, ahead of an enthronement in November. Catholics took a fortnight to choose a new Pope. Somerset showdown Are Brexiteers about to do battle in Somerset? A by-election is a possibility in North East Somerset. Former Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg is thought to be eyeing up the seat that he lost to Dan Norris at last July's election. But hold on! Arron Banks – the 'bad boy of Brexit' who funded Nigel Farage's 2016 referendum campaign – told me on GB News that he too is looking at standing (his home is five miles outside of the constituency). 'It will be a battle of the country house estates,' Bank tells me. Unless Rees-Mogg jumps ship to Reform, of course. Train to nowhere BBC political editor Chris Mason took the Caledonian Sleeper back from Glasgow after the Prime Minister's defence announcement this week, retiring to his bunk for the 400-mile journey after a dram in the buffet car. He tells me: 'In the small hours, drifting in and out of sleep, it did feel a remarkably smooth journey compared with my last nocturnal train odyssey'. He put it down to 'advances in rolling stock'. But he was awoken with a bang on the door at 5am. 'Morning gents,' said the guard. 'I'm afraid we are still in Glasgow. There's a tree down on the line.' Mason and his BBC team dashed to Edinburgh and made it back to Westminster for the late morning. 'It is all part of the rich tapestry of political reporting,' he says. 'And we got our money back.' Licence fee payers will be delighted. Swedish flag poles Reform UK wants Union flags to fly from its council flagpoles, but shouldn't the Foreign Office be doing its bit too? Whitehall credit card receipts show that David Lammy's department has just placed a £1,500 order for a new batch of miniature Union Jack flagpoles for official vehicles – from Gothenburg, Sweden. 'It is shocking,' says shadow foreign office minister Andrew Rosindell. 'Surely we should be supporting British flag manufacturers when it comes to purchasing flags of our own nation?' Farage's new limit The Spectator's resident magician Mark Mason hosted a quiz this week for the magazine's readers, asking: 'Nigel Farage has a self-imposed limit of how many pints, after which he won't let himself do live TV?' The answer, Mason said, is 'five'. But is that still the case? Farage, 60, tells me: 'Five was always the rule – but I was younger then!' Not even one for the road, Nigel? No queuing for Jezza Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was spotted last week marching past a queue waiting patiently for Left-wing senator Bernie Sanders at the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster. He entered by the hall's stage door. Was he queue-jumping? His aide tells: 'Bernie and his team invited him backstage beforehand.' Er, OK. Perhaps some Very Important Members of the Proletariat are more equal than others. Bookish popstar What do hard-living pop stars do when they enter they grow older? Nick Rhodes, 62, the perma-blond keyboardist in 1980s band Duran Duran, with Simon Le Bon and John Taylor, has accumulated a library of rare tomes. 'I collect fine antique books and have quite the collection,' he told me at Chelsea's Saatchi Gallery. 'It's not generally something I broadcast... With rare books I have my preferences but I'm not saying what they are. If the dealers know it's me they put the price up.' Imperial record Peterborough reader Jeremy Havard got in touch after I told how British Weights and Measures Association wants the Commonwealth Games to replace permanently the 1,500 metres with a mile-long race. Havard recounted how his late father John, president of the Cambridge University Athletics Club in the mid-1940s, broke the London University record for the 100 yards. He says. 'Three years later the decision was taken to change the event to 100 metres, which meant he remained the 'current record holder for 100 yards' in perpetuity.' Havard always included the record in his Who's Who entry. And why not? Peterborough, published every Friday at 7pm, is edited by Christopher Hope. You can reach him at peterborough@
BBC News
04-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Reform Doge review of Kent County Council has no time frame set
Reform UK have warned their Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) unit "will take as long as it takes" to provide Monday the Doge team arrived at Kent County Council (KCC) in Maidstone for their first chairman Zia Yusuf met leader Linden Kemkaran along with senior staff, accompanied by millionaire party backer Arron Banks and Nathaniel Fried, a tech entrepreneur said to be leading the Doge party plans to use artificial intelligence, advanced data analysis tools and forensic auditing techniques to "identify wasteful spending and recommend actionable solutions". The scheme is modelled on the Doge unit created by billionaire Elon Musk as part of Donald Trump's second term as US president.A KCC spokesperson has said the council "has always been committed to transparency and accountability" but will work "collaboratively and professionally" with the Doge said the meeting on Monday was "very productive" but the party had admitted it does not know how long it will take for the unit to produce recommendations. Reform UK took control of eight authorities from the Conservatives, along with Doncaster from Labour and Durham, which was run as a coalition, in the local elections of 1 has said it also intends to send its Doge team into Staffordshire County Council and West Northamptonshire move has been criticised in Kent by both the Liberal Democrat opposition and the county council's Green Party councillors, who both attacked the new administration's decision to cancel several scheduled committee meetings.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Reform UK to pilot Doge-style scheme to examine council spending
Reform UK has told council officers they will face 'gross misconduct' if they obstruct an Elon Musk-style department of government efficiency unit to examine all council spending in areas they control. The party will pilot the Doge-style scheme in Kent county council, led by a team including the Brexit donor Arron Banks as well as cybersecurity entrepreneur Nathaniel Fried. The move has been criticised as 'political theatre' by senior local authority figures and opposition politicians. Robert Hayward, the Conservative peer and pollster, told Politico he had written to the Electoral Commission arguing that the Reform volunteers should be scrutinised under political donation rules as a donation in kind. Lord Hayward said: 'Without full disclosure, the risk is that any donation could be buying access or influence election results.' Announcing the new initiative, Reform said the team would start to go through all council expenditure, beginning with Kent county council, to identify wasteful spending in the manner of the unit set up by Musk under Donald Trump with the aim of cutting wasteful spending. It said it would use artificial intelligence, advanced data analysis tools and forensic auditing techniques to 'identify wasteful spending and recommend actionable solutions'. It said all council officers should hand over all documents requested, including internal investigations or whistleblowing reports relevant to financial matters. 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.' The instruction was signed by the council leader, Linden Kemkaran; the party chair, Zia Yusuf; and the Reform leader, Nigel Farage. Announcing the scheme, 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.' Farage told GB News that all of those involved were doing it on a voluntary basis. He said: 'This is day one of Doge. The Doge team has gone into County Hall in Maidstone in Kent this very morning, a team of young tech entrepreneurs who are not being paid. They're doing it of their own free will, and we're going in to have a look at Kent, have a look at the contracts, to have a look at the expenditure. 'We hope that the Kent chief executive and the council will work with us because, of course, many of the decisions – decisions on spending – would have been political decisions. No, Doge is active, up and running as we speak.' John Merry, the deputy mayor of Salford who chairs the Key Cities group of 24 councils across the UK, said Doge was 'absolutely the last thing local authorities need right now'. He said: 'I hear daily from members facing mounting pressures across vital services like Send [special educational needs and disabilities], social care and homelessness. In this context, it is difficult to see how Reform's Doge initiative offers any meaningful solution. What councils need now is not inefficient cost-cutting at the margins, but a serious commitment to long-term funding reform – one that aligns grant allocation with local needs and supports a resilient foundation for economic growth.' Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said: 'If you're looking at Elon Musk's Doge and thinking that is how we want to have our bins collected and potholes filled, you might be learning the wrong lesson.'
The Guardian
02-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Reform UK to pilot Doge-style scheme to examine council spending
Reform UK has told council officers they will face 'gross misconduct' if they obstruct an Elon Musk-style department of government efficiency unit to examine all council spending in areas they control. The party will pilot the Doge-style scheme in Kent county council, led by a team including the Brexit donor Arron Banks as well as cybersecurity entrepreneur Nathaniel Fried. The move has been criticised as 'political theatre' by senior local authority figures and opposition politicians. The Conservative peer and pollster Robert Hayward told Politico he had written to the Electoral Commission arguing that the Reform volunteers should be scrutinised under political donation rules as a donation in kind. Lord Hayward said: 'Without full disclosure, the risk is that any donation could be buying access or influence election results.' Announcing the new initiative, Reform said the team would start to go through all council expenditure, beginning with Kent county council, to identify wasteful spending in the manner of the unit set up by Musk under Donald Trump with the aim of cutting wasteful spending. It said it would use artificial intelligence, advanced data analysis tools and forensic auditing techniques to 'identify wasteful spending and recommend actionable solutions'. It said all council officers should hand over all documents requested, including internal investigations or whistleblowing reports relevant to financial matters. 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.' The instruction was signed by the council leader, Linden Kemkaran; the party chair, Zia Yusuf, and the Reform leader, Nigel Farage. Announcing the scheme, 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.' Farage told GB News that all of those involved were doing it on a voluntary basis. He said: 'This is day one of Doge. The Doge team has gone into County Hall in Maidstone in Kent this very morning, a team of young tech entrepreneurs who are not being paid. They're doing it of their own free will, and we're going in to have a look at Kent, have a look at the contracts, to have a look at the expenditure. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'We hope that the Kent chief executive and the council will work with us because, of course, many of the decisions, decisions on spending, would have been political decisions. No, Doge is active, up and running as we speak.' Cllr John Merry, the deputy mayor of Salford who chairs the Key Cities group of 24 councils across the UK, said Doge was 'absolutely the last thing local authorities need right now'. He said: 'I hear daily from members facing mounting pressures across vital services like Send [special educational needs and disabilities], social care and homelessness. In this context, it is difficult to see how Reform's Doge initiative offers any meaningful solution. What councils need now is not inefficient cost-cutting at the margins, but a serious commitment to long-term funding reform – one that aligns grant allocation with local needs and supports a resilient foundation for economic growth.' Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said: 'If you're looking at Elon Musk's Doge and thinking that is how we want to have our bins collected and potholes filled – you might be learning the wrong lesson.'
