PLANS for an audit of Staffordshire County Council by a Reform UK team have been questioned by the Conservatives.
Nigel Farage said his DOGE group – named after the controversial American Department of Government Efficiency – would be trawling through information at the authority after his party won control in the elections last month.
The Reform UK chief said he was confident “significant” savings would be found during the county council review.
He said:
“Great though are our councillors are here in Staffordshire, I’ve yet to meet a tech entrepreneur amongst them or someone who understands how to use AI to deliver very fast results.
“If you want to deeply analyse some of this expenditure it might take a huge team of people six months to do – we believe that these people can bring us significant short cuts.”
But Cllr Philip White, leader of the Conservative opposition group said Mr Farage’s comments raised questions about his belief in the ability of Reform’s representatives in Staffordshire.
He said:
“This is a big vote of no confidence by Nigel Farage in the ability of his newly-elected councillors to do their job of holding their council to account and looking after taxpayers money.
“Conservative councillors delivered over £320million of savings during our time running Staffordshire and we have identified a further £95million of savings the council can deliver up to 2030 – all without the need to be told what to do by our party leader and their unelected officials.
“We have a by-election for the council on 17th July after one of Reform’s councillors quit after two weeks. Perhaps Nigel Farage would like to put himself forward as a candidate given he does not seem to trust his local councillors to run the county council themselves?”
