Musk-style Doge team starts work at council

Reform UK's former chairman Zia Yusuf met cabinet member James Petter (left) and council leader Mark Arnull (right) in Northampton

An Elon Musk-style Doge team said it had started work to "identify waste and efficiencies" at a council.

Reform UK, which took control of West Northamptonshire Council in May, said the team would provide its services to the local authority free of charge.

The head of the party's efficiency drive, Zia Yusuf, said it would use "cutting-edge technology" to deliver savings. The Labour group leader has asked for full disclosure of all the communication between council leadership and the Doge team.

The concept of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) was born following discussions between US President Donald Trump and his former adviser, Elon Musk.

Musk said the aim of the department was to "end the tyranny of the bureaucracy, save taxpayers' money and reduce US national debt".

In the UK, Reform's efficiency campaign is being spearheaded by the party's former chairman, Zia Yusuf, who visited West Northamptonshire Council on Friday.

He said British taxpayers had noticed "their taxes keep going up, their bin collections keep getting less frequent, potholes remain unfixed and their local services keep getting cut".

"Reform won a historic victory in West Northamptonshire and around the country on a mandate to change this," he added.

Musk had promised his Doge team would "take a chainsaw" to bureaucracy and waste

The party said a team of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors will audit West Northamptonshire's spending to "increase transparency and ensure taxpayer money is spent solely on activity that benefits residents".

The leader of West Northamptonshire Council, Mark Arnull, said: "The cutting-edge expertise that the Doge team are providing free of charge will make it that much easier to identify waste and free up funds which we can redirect towards frontline public services like special education needs and disabilities provision, adult social care and filling potholes."

Sally Keeble won a seat on the council at the May election and said the Doge team was "nothing to do with improving services"

Daniel Lister, the leader of the Conservative opposition on the council, said: "This is not transparency, it is theatre - a pantomime dressed up as scrutiny, designed to distract from the fact they came into office with no local manifesto, no strategic plan, and now, no idea how to govern."

The Labour group leader, Sally Keeble, said she had submitted a Freedom of Information request for all communication between the council and Reform UK's Doge team to be released.

She added: "If the Reform administration wants to appoint Doge, they should put the organisation through a transparent procurement process with safeguards in place for people's personal data.

"Running the council does not entitle Reform to bulldoze around Angel Square [the council's HQ]."