Latest news with #ArronBanks
BBC News
2 days ago
- 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
3 days ago
- 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
3 days ago
- 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.'
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Reform launches Elon Musk-style 'DOGE' unit led by cap-wearing 28-year-old tech entrepreneur to cut 'wasteful' council spending
Reform UK is to send its first Elon Musk-style Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) unit into a council to look at 'wasteful spending' - under the leadership of a 28-year-old tech entrepreneur. Nathaniel Fried will lead a team of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors who will 'visit and analyse' local authorities controlled by Nigel Farage's party, starting 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 billed Mr Fried as one of the country's 'leading tech entrepreneurs with a specialism in data analytics who has also been a turnaround CEO'. He co-founded TurgenSec, which developed systems to uncover data breaches for businesses. It hit the headlines in 2020 when it found an insecure Virgin Media database that allegedly contained information linking customers to pornographic sites. He will be joined by party chairman Zia Yusuf and Arron Banks, the millionaire founder of the campaign ahead of the 2016 referendum. Mr Banks, who will act as an adviser, stood to be mayor of the West of England last month but failed to win. Reform's 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 Mr 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. Mr Fried has not always been a fan of Mr Farage, tweeting in 2021 that his YouTube account was being filled with the leader's 'Cameo rubbish' - a reference to bespoke video messages he records for paying customers. Reform 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.' 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. Mr Fried has not always been a fan of Mr Farage, tweeting in 2021 that his YouTube account was being filled with the leader's 'Cameo rubbish' - a reference to bespoke video messages he records for paying customers. 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. Mr Farage today demanded tax cuts for North Sea oil and gas firms today as he set out to woo Scottish voters ahead of a key Holyrood by-election. The Reform leader hit out at the overall rate of 78 per cent - including the windfall tax - paid by companies who have made massive profits in recent years, on a visit to Aberdeen. A long-standing critic of Net Zero, Mr Farage said the 'disastrous' tax rate, brought in by the Tories and increased by Labour, was putting off firms from applying to drill at a time when fossil fuels are needed. Ahead of the by-election in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse next week he also suggested the country should get new powers to generate its own income because devolution is 'here to stay'. He also unveiled a Reform defector from the Tories, local councillor Duncan Massey, and and vowed to unveil a Labour defector when he visits Hamilton later. Mr Farage said his audience at an upmarket restaurant in the east coast city included several prominent businessmen and businesswomen who are 'very worried about the future of the oil and gas industry'. '2025 will be a year of record consumption of fossil fuels,' he said. 'We can con ourselves as much as we like, there'll be more coal burnt this year than has ever been burnt in the history of mankind. 'And the same applies to the use of gas and oil, even the most ardent opponent of net zero has to accept the world will still be using oil and gas.' Rachel Reeves increased the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) to 38 per cent in November, which Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) said would push the headline rate on upstream oil and gas activities up to 78 per cent. The Reform leader also said he was open to looking at alternatives to the Barnett Formula, which has been used to apportion UK government cash to the nations since the 1970s. 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. As campaigning enters its final days, Mr Swinney warned of the potential threat from Reform, saying: 'Things remain tough for too many families who feel let down by Labour – who have given up in this campaign – and the deeply concerning rise in support for Farage. 'Be in no doubt, Nigel Farage doesn't care about Scotland. He poses a threat to our values and must be stopped, and only the SNP can do that. 'In this by-election, the SNP is the only party investing in Scotland's future, delivering for families and confronting Farage. On Thursday, vote SNP to stop Farage.'
Times
27-04-2025
- Business
- Times
Mayor is a meaningless job, says Reform's man in mayoral race
Arron Banks has been warned by his old friend Nigel Farage to expect anything he says in front of a journalist to be reported. Despite this the multimillionaire insurance tycoon, 59, who donated more than £8 million to the Leave campaign in 2016, is completely unfiltered. He is Reform's candidate to become mayor of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), and has repeatedly told The Times that he thinks it is a 'meaningless job' with little power to help anyone. When I met Banks at Old Down Manor, the country house he runs as a wedding venue and farm park in Thornbury, south Gloucestershire, he joked that polls showing he had a chance of winning were 'a bit worrying'. He said with a smile:
