Reform have announced they are trialling a UK DOGE unit on Kent County Council to examine all council spending.
The scheme, inspired by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in the US, will be led by a team of five.
The crack squad includes Brexit donor and defeated Bristol mayoral candidate Arron Banks, who will act as an ‘advisor to DOGE.’
The other team members are:
- Linden Kemkaran – leader of Kent County Council
- Zia Yusuf – Reform UK Chairman
- Nathanial Fried – Cybersecurity entrepreneur who has been named head of British DOGE
- Brian Collins – Deputy Leader of Kent County Council
Reform UK has told council officers they will face “gross misconduct” of they try and obstruct the unit.
The party said the British DOGE team would go through all council expenditure to find wasteful spending, inspired by Musk’s initiative in the US government, which has seen some 250,000 jobs axed and entire federal departments shuttered.
Council officers on Kent county council have been told to hand over all documents requested, including internal investigations or whistleblowing reports relevant to financial matters.
The Guardian reports that an instruction signed by Kemkaran, Yusuf and party leader Nigel Farage warns council officers: “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.”
Reform has been widely mocked and criticised for the DOGE scheme, with Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin pointing out that the announcement came after Reform cancelled a Governance and Audit Committee at Kent County Council.
Meanwhile, others have highlighted the glowing business CV of team leader Nathaniel Fried.
And Lib Dem leader Ed Davey 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.”
Related: Nigel Farage called out by BBC reporter for ‘racist lies’ about Scottish Labour leader