No timeline on savings for Reform's council ‘Doge'

REFORM UK have warned that their new Elon Musk-style Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) unit “will take as long as it takes” to provide recommendations for Kent County Council.

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On Monday, the inaugural Doge team arrived at the authority's headquarters in Maidstone for their first meeting.

Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf joined council leader Cllr Linden Kemkaran, senior council staff, millionaire Reform backer Aaron Banks, and Nathaniel Fried, a tech entrepreneur said to be leading the Doge unit.

Reform plan to use artificial intelligence, advanced data analysis tools, and forensic auditing techniques to “identify wasteful spending and recommend actionable solutions”.

It is intended to imitate the US Doge, which was launched during Donald Trump's presidency with the stated goal of cutting federal spending, and was headed by Mr Musk before his recent departure.

Mr Musk had initially pledged that Doge would save the American government “at least $2 trillion”, but later drastically reduced his target to around $150 billion.