Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says North Northamptonshire Council’s DOGE initiative will find ‘fewer egregious cases of spending’

The group’s national figurehead arrived at the Corby Cube early on Tuesday morning (June 17), greeted by new North Northants Council (NNC) leader Martin Griffiths and a swathe of other newly-elected Reform UK councillors.

Mr Farage’s return marks his first official visit back to the county since the grand event held at Kettering Leisure Village in April, kicking off Reform UK’s local election campaign.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that he didn’t in his ‘wildest dreams’ think the party would achieve their ‘astonishing’ majority result when he was last in Northamptonshire.

In recent weeks, the party has been rallying around its new DOGE initiative, which they say will identify waste and efficiencies to make within council budgets in the best interest of the taxpayer.

The group, which is made up of software engineers, data analysts, forensic auditors and led by former Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf, first arrived in Kent County Council at the start of the month.

It visited the west of the county just last week to mark the beginning of its deep dive into their finances.

‘This county’s unique’

When asked by the LDRS what savings he hopes to see from the project in the county, Mr Farage said: “We’re certainly going to find savings in the old counties where one council has run it for years.

“Things in this county are a bit different; this county’s unique. The previous council here went bankrupt and therefore they started again with a blank sheet of paper.

“I suspect we will find fewer egregious cases of spending here than we’ll find elsewhere.

“But, are there things that DOGE sees that could actually be quite positive contributions, where maybe we can negotiate a better contract here or there? Are the people within DOGE highly intelligent business people? Yes.

“As I say, I think we’ll find less bad stuff than we’ll find elsewhere, but we’ll still find efficiencies, I believe.”

Some criticisms from local opposition parties have come out of Reform UK’s DOGE announcements, including warnings from the North Northants Greens that their group would not support ‘leadership or action that’s dictated by Westminster’.

When the claims were put directly to him, Mr Farage stated in response: “Of course we want things run on a local level, but we’re a national party and one wing of our party is coming to help our councils to make savings.

“Isn’t that what council taxpayers want? So, I don’t believe those criticisms are particularly strong.”

‘We will welcome DOGE’

When asked about the party’s DOGE team, Cllr Griffiths told the LDRS that the authority was already starting to look at efficiency measures prior to their arrival.

He added: “It’s something that this council has done previously and it’s also something that good councils do on an ongoing basis. This is just a little bit of a different way of doing it.

“I know that Nigel was very impressed with what he’s seen today.

"We will welcome the DOGE - and I don’t use that phrase very often - but we will welcome the efficiencies team that comes to North Northamptonshire because we see it as an opportunity to deliver that exemplary council.”

A motion passed unanimously by the council’s executive panel has given approval for NNC to commence a review of its financial management and contract arrangements, which will take place over the summer.

According to the papers, it will be conducted by a cross-functional team from within the authority, with oversight from the executive group and open engagement with scrutiny bodies.

At this point, neither the national party nor the local leadership team has confirmed a timeline for when NNC can expect the Reform UK DOGE team to come rolling in.