The leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, has announced that Kent is the first county to see the party's specialist team arrive to search for wasteful council spending.
Nigel Farage told GB News: “This is day one of Doge".
Reform's Doge is based on the D.O.G.E. - or Department of Government Efficiency - which was set up by Donald Trump recently to cut U.S. government spending and was run by the billionaire Elon Musk.
Nigel Farage said on Monday: "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".
Nigel Farage continued: "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. Doge is active, up and running as we speak".
Reform said a team of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors will "visit and analyse" local authorities.
But Antony Hook, the Liberal Democrat opposition leader on Kent County Council (pictured below), questioned the need for a team of outside auditors.
Antony Hook told BBC Radio Kent: "We have at KCC a governance and audit committee, that was due to have its first meeting since the election next week. Reform have cancelled it.
"The health and scrutiny committee was meant to meet, Reform have cancelled it. Reform have cancelled most of the committee meetings for this week or next week, without any explanation.
"They haven't even named who their nominees to chair these important committees are.
"If Reform were serious about making the council work well they would be getting their councillors to do this job, not bringing in unnamed anonymous people who haven't been elected."
The move has also been condemned by the Green Party.
Rich Lehmann, the party's leader on Kent County Council, said: "This move, along with the cancellation of key committee meetings, feels like a blatant attempt to subvert the checks and balances which ensure all of the council's activities are transparent and above board.
"The fact that they have software engineers offering to work "for free" is of particular concern, given that the data they are forcefully requesting access to would include significant volumes of commercially sensitive information and the personal data of many of Kent's most vulnerable residents.
"This is a reckless move that puts vital council operations and residents at risk."
Announcing the scheme on Sunday night, Reform UK’s chairman Zia 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 D.O.G.E. to identify and cut wasteful spending of taxpayer money. Our team will use cutting-edge technology and deliver real value for voters.”
Zia Yusuf met Reform UK's KCC council leader Cllr Linden Kemkaren, chief executive Amanda Beer, and senior staff this Monday morning.
Zia Yusuf is pictured above (centre) with leading Reform member Aaron Banks (left), council leader Cllr Linden Kemkaren, deputy leader Cllr Brian Collins (right) and Nathanial Fried, who's a tech entrepreneur leading the cost-saving efforts (rear) at County Hall.
UPDATE THURSDAY 5 JUNE: Zia Yusuf has now resigned as Reform UK Chairman. Tech entrepreneur Nathanial Fried has also said he is leaving the Reform UK attempts to find savings in local councils.
UPDATE SUNDAY 8 JUNE: Zia Yusuf said his resignation as Chairman still stands, but he will after all stay on working for Reform UK in a different role, leading the Doge team investigating council finances.
UPDATE MONDAY 9 JUNE: Zia Yusuf told BBC Radio 4: "I am in a different role...I am serving a role which I think is going to be incredibly important. This doge project of uncovering wasteful - and potentially corrupt practices - initially in local government and then beyond, I think is going to be one of the most important missions that this country is going to have to go through maybe since the Second World War given the state of the public finances. I realised actually having gone to Kent Council what an enormous task that it is".
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