Reform-Run Council Asks Opposition Politicians for Help Making Cuts After ‘Desperate’ Search for Savings Falls Short

Nigel Farage’s struggling flagship Kent administration has failed to identify the millions of pounds in savings it promised voters in May. Josiah Mortimer reports

Reform’s flagship ‘cost-cutting’ Kent County Council leadership is now approaching opposition parties for help finding extra cash – after struggling to identify the tens of millions of pounds in budget savings it promised voters when it was elected in May, Byline Times can reveal.

The Reform-controlled council was heralded by Leader Nigel Farage as a symbol of what the party could achieve nationally by cutting local government “waste”.

Reform Councillor Matthew Fraser Moat was appointed as a £36,000-a-year Cabinet member for what the party calls its Elon Musk-inspired ‘DOLGE’ (Department of Local Government Efficiency) – mimicking the X owner’s aborted efforts to find efficiency savings in the first months of US President Donald Trump’s second administration.