Farage commits to ‘DOGE department’ at Northamptonshire Reform UK local election launch

At Reform UK’s local election campaign launch, Mr Farage said Northamptonshire’s unitary authorities were ‘completely bust’.

Speaking to this newspaper, he said Northamptonshire had ‘local government failure on a level that is just astonishing’. He also criticised the decision to scrap county and district councils, which had made things ‘even worse’ for the county.

“If we get in there, there’ll be a DOGE-style department for Northamptonshire. We’ll cut spending and try and get the thing back on an even track,” he said.

DOGE refers to the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an advisory body created by President Trump to cut government jobs and spending. It is currently led by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man.

Mr Farage addressed the issue of potholes in the county. He said that a DOGE-style department would allow the party to audit long-term contracts, including those for road repairs.

The Reform UK leader also believes that national concerns will play a big role when polls open on May 1 alongside local issues, such as council tax and local services.

He blamed the Conservatives and Labour for ‘mass immigration on an open scale’, which he claimed had impacted housing availability, access to GP services and road congestion, issues that he said will be a key concern to voters across the country.

Mr Farage said: “This council needs a shake-up. One party has been in power far too long.”

On Wednesday (April 2) hundreds of Reform UK supporters descended on Kettering Leisure Village to see Mr Farage welcome its candidates for all 144 seats across West and North Northamptonshire.

At the event, The Northants Telegraph quizzed Mr Farage on the Netflix programme Adolescence. The show is about a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a girl in his class.

The show has generated discussion about the issues of ‘toxic masculinity’ and the ‘manosphere’.

Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer welcomed Netflix’s decision on Monday to make the series free for secondary schools.

Mr Farage was asked about Reform’s plan for local councils to address this in education.

He said: “Let boys be boys. Let’s grow up. Let’s let blokes be blokes. Maybe some of the bad behaviour we see from young men is because we’re oppressing them.

“What the Conservatives did not do was stop the march of hard left Marxist woke extremism going right through educational establishments.

“So many of our young people from millennials down have frankly been poisoned into thinking and understanding what our country represents and what it is, what our history is, poisoned with gender ideology and so many other things.”

The Reform UK leader was also asked how he plans to keep his party intact locally following divisions between Reform MPs in the House of Commons.

Great Yarmouth MP, Robert Lowe, was expelled from the parliamentary party last month following allegations of physical violence and workplace bullying. Mr Lowe has denied these claims and said his suspension was politically motivated.

Mr Farage said there was no such division in his party.

He said: “There was one person that didn’t behave very well, and I took action to protect the party. We are very united.”

Mr Farage promised that the Reform UK party would remain intact if they made gains in local elections.

He added: “They’re like a team.”