Head of Reform council’s cost-cutting programme resigns after suggesting authority has made ‘no cuts’ | EUROtoday

The head of Reform UK’s ‘flagship’ council’s cost-cutting programme has resigned after suggesting the authority had “not made any cuts”.

Matthew Fraser Moat has stood down from Kent County Council’s (KCC) cupboard after an interview with the Financial Times during which he and one other cupboard minister appeared to recommend the authority had not saved cash.

The Reform UK councillor had been the top of the council’s Department of Local Government Efficiency (Dolge), which was impressed by Elon Musk’s cost-cutting Doge within the US.

According to the newspaper article, Mr Moat mentioned he was proud the council “had not actually made any cuts”, including “we haven’t cut frontline services other than what the Conservatives had already planned to do”.

His colleague, deputy cupboard minister Paul Chamberlain, additionally advised the Financial Times that they’d not discovered the huge quantity of waste they’d anticipated to after they got here into energy final 12 months.

“We made some assumptions that we would come in here and find some of the craziness that [Elon Musk’s cost-cutting vehicle] Doge found in America . . . and that was wrong, we didn’t find any of that,” he mentioned.

Mr Chamberlain added that members within the former Conservative council “weren’t crazy, they were business people”.

Mr Moat stepped down from his function on Tuesday, however claimed the pressures of his function at County Hall and operating the household enterprise had led to “a lapse of judgement” which meant his phrases had been “twisted” by the Financial Times to “fit into an anti-KCC narrative”.

Kent County Council mentioned the article “does not accurately reflect the position” on the authority and that it “presents a selective account of the council’s work on efficiency and value for money”.

Reform UK took management of KCC after the native elections in May the place it overturned a 30-year Tory majority, profitable 57 out of 81 seats.

During the election marketing campaign, and after they got here to energy, Reform promised to “reduce waste” which manifested because the Musk-style Department of Local Government Efficiency.

Questions have been raised about what progress the division has made, after the native authority raised council tax by nearly 4 per cent regardless of pledges to chop taxes earlier than final 12 months’s native elections.

“It was a great honour to be asked to serve as a Cabinet Member and since then I have tried to balance my Council responsibilities with the responsibilities of my family business,” Mr Moat mentioned.

“The pressure of giving my best to both roles led to a lapse of judgement in a recent conversation with a journalist in which I was very disappointed to see my words twisted to fit what I believe to be an anti-KCC narrative by the newspaper in question.

“It has become clear to me that continuing as Head of Dolge is not sustainable, and now that KCC has delivered a balanced budget and stabilised the council’s finances, I have decided to step down from my role as a cabinet member.”

A Reform UK spokesman mentioned the “unfair and selective reporting from the Financial Times does not accurately represent the position at Kent County Council”.

“In just eight months, the Reform UK administration have found £100 million of efficiencies through their Dolge efforts, finding £14 million of savings just to ensure that council tax increases for residents are kept to a minimum,” they added.

“These efforts continue, with hundreds of millions of pounds of future savings already identified. Across the country, Reform councillors continue to prove their commitment to keeping taxes low and delivering value for money in every decision they make.”