Latest news with #DogeTeam
BBC News
13-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Reform UK to carry out Nottinghamshire County Council 'efficiency review'
Nottinghamshire County Council is to conduct an 'efficiency review' in an attempt to find savings, the authority has has been commissioned by Reform UK which has controlled the council since the local elections last leader Mick Barton said it is separate to the Elon Musk-style Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) team which Reform has said it will send into councils it runs, but added the two will work together. "We're a new administration and we want to see where we are financially, so we think it's a good idea to have a full financial review," he said. He added he could not yet say what sort of savings the review may identify but he does not expect any council staff to lose their jobs."It's got nothing to do with staff and I've already made that very clear to staff, they've got nothing to worry about at all," he said.A report published on Friday stated the review will be carried out by elected councillors and a "multi-skilled team of officers" but will draw on "external expertise as appropriate".Barton said he is "more than happy" for the Doge team to be a part of the review but insisted councillors will make any final decisions."If they find anything, it's going to come to me as leader and my team and we're going to look at it," he Doge team is being led by Zia Yusuf, who resigned as Reform UK Chairman last week before returning in the new role two days is currently no timetable for it to arrive in Nottinghamshire.A party spokesperson said: "We have now assembled a team of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors who will visit and analyse every Reform UK-controlled council, including Nottinghamshire County Council."The taskforce will identify wasteful spending, increasing transparency and ensuring taxpayer money is spent solely on activity that benefits local people." Conservative group leader Sam Smith said work to improve efficiency was already taking place when he was the council's leader and he would not endorse a Doge-style audit."They're not local to where they're investigating and they're unelected. I'm not in favour of that," he said."It sounds like Reform in Nottinghamshire have maybe disagreed with their central office and said we'll do it from a councillor perspective."Barton, however, denied there was any rift with the national party."We're not at odds or anything, I work very closely with my party and I've got a very good relationship, hence why we're doing it our way in Nottinghamshire," he group leader Penny Gowland, meanwhile, said the plan was a waste of staff time."Everyone wants to save money, but there is no magic pot waiting to be cut. In fact, after more than a decade of Tory chaos in Downing Street, councils are crying out for more funding," she said."The problem is not that councils are wasting money but that they don't have enough money to do things properly."The report states the review will take place over the summer and will inform the budget setting process for next year and future is due to be discussed at a meeting of the council's cabinet on 23 June.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Farage: Yusuf made a mistake quitting but is back now
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says party chairman Zia Yusuf made a 'mistake' by quitting, but has returned in a new role leading a UK Doge team. Yusuf resigned suddenly on social media but reversed his decision within 24 hours following talks with Farage. .
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Zia Yusuf announces return to Reform UK two days after quitting as chair
Zia Yusuf has said he will return to Nigel Farage's Reform UK, just two days after quitting the party. Yusuf was the rightwing party's chair but resigned on Thursday after suggesting it was 'dumb' of the party's newest MP to ask the prime minister if he would ban the burqa. Less than 48 hours later, Yusuf said his decision to quit was a 'mistake' that had resulted from 'exhaustion' after working long hours and facing reams of racist abuse on social media. Farage and Yusuf announced on Saturday that Yusuf would return to the fold and would take on several jobs, though his formal title has not been announced. One of his roles will be to lead what the party is calling its 'Doge team' – based on the 'department of government efficiency' set up in the US by Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Yusuf will also act as a spokesperson for Reform and have a say in its policymaking and fundraising efforts. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Yusuf said his intervention over the burqa had been an 'error'. Yusuf tweeted on Thursday that Sarah Pochin, the Reform MP for Runcorn and Helsby, had been 'dumb' to ask Keir Starmer at prime minister's questions whether he would ban it. Hours later he announced he was quitting, saying he did not believe working to get a Reform government elected was a good use of his time. 'When I pushed that tweet out it was a coming together of a bit of exhaustion and a feeling that all I got in return for it was abuse,' he said on Saturday. 'I was doing so many things, in the foreground and in the background.' 'What has happened since then is that I've been inundated with messages from Reform members and supporters who were saying they were devastated and heartbroken and asking me to really reconsider my decision. 'I left my business interests behind, I've volunteered full-time, because I love my country and I believe the best way to save it and turn it into a great one is for Nigel to be prime minister. 'It made me realise that in that moment I was turning my back on that – and I didn't want to do that.' Yusuf, who is a practising Muslim, insisted he did not have 'any strong views about the burqa itself' and said that 'if there were a vote and I was in parliament, I would probably vote to ban it actually'. He described the fallout over Pochin's comments as 'an internal miscommunication issue' and said he had found out about her remarks for the first time on X. 'I don't mind saying that it frustrated me,' he said. He added that he did not think the issue of burqas 'is one of the most important [to] British people when they go about their day-to-day lives'. Earlier on Saturday, Farage said: 'When Zia says anything you cannot believe the absolute tirade of personal racist abuse that he gets … I just think he snapped.' The Reform leader told Times Radio the abuse came 'from the very hard extreme right' and blamed 'Indian bots'. Yusuf was brought in by Farage to be Reform's chair last year, months after he donated £200,000 to the party. He is widely credited within Reform for having professionalised the party, hiring new people, setting up more branches and making it run in a more corporate way. However, he also rubbed some of the Reform old guard up the wrong way with his management style and by overseeing the departures of several long-serving former members of staff. Some of Reform's members have turned against Yusuf over his role in the departure of one of the party's most rightwing MPs, Rupert Lowe, after the pair clashed earlier this year. The Sunday Times reported that Yusuf's former role of chair will now be split into two. There will be a front-facing chair tasked with touring the country and speaking to the media, and a deputy in charge of organisational matters. Ellie Reeves, the Labour party chair, said: 'Reform's revolving door shows that the party is all about one person – Nigel Farage. Zia Yusuf's humiliating hokey cokey is laughable but there is nothing funny about Farage's £80bn in unfunded commitments.' A spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats said: 'It looks like Reform are playing musical chairman.'
The Guardian
07-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Zia Yusuf announces return to Reform UK two days after quitting as chair
Zia Yusuf has said he will return to Reform UK, just two days after quitting the party. Yusuf was the rightwing party's chair but resigned on Thursday after suggesting it was 'dumb' of the party's newest MP to ask the prime minister if he would ban the burqa. He will lead what the party is calling its 'Doge team' – based on the 'department of government efficiency' set up in the US by Donald Trump and Elon Musk. More details soon …
The National
29-05-2025
- Business
- The National
Elon Musk departs Trump administration
Elon Musk on Wednesday said he was leaving his position within the US government after leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency in a controversial effort to slash federal spending. 'As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President Donald Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,' he wrote on his social media platform X. A White House official told Reuters that Mr Musk is leaving the administration and his 'off-boarding will begin tonight.' Mr Musk's 130-day mandate as a special government employee in the Trump administration was set to expire around May 30. The administration has said Doge's efforts to restructure and shrink the federal government will continue. 'The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,' he wrote. Mr Musk and Doge have cut nearly 12 per cent, or 260,000 people, from the 2.3 million-strong federal civilian workforce largely through threats of firings, buyouts and early retirement offers, Reuters reported. Mr Musk's departure comes after he criticised the price tag of Republicans' tax and budget legislation making its way through Congress. 'I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the Doge team is doing,' Mr Musk told CBS News. The richest person on the planet's political activities have drawn protests and some investors has called for Mr Musk to leave his work as Mr Trump's adviser and manage Tesla more closely. He leaves Washington dramatically changed. Doge's firings exploded the US capital's long-held boast that it is immune to economic shocks that buffet the rest of the country. The Tesla and SpaceX chief joined the Trump administration in January and claimed he would cut $2 trillion from the $7 trillion federal budget. It became clear that was wildly overambitious, and as of today, Doge says it has saved an estimated $175 billion. But the taxpayer may end up on the hook for more than that as the government is forced to settle lawsuits over the mass firings, as well as hire expensive contractors to fill the gaps left by an overzealous Doge. Plus, any savings will be dwarfed by new deficit spending under the Republicans' tax bill that is currently under Senate consideration. Mr Musk's role working for Mr Trump was always intended to be temporary, and he had recently signalled that he would be shifting his attention back to running his businesses.
