Off the rails? Reform party audit squad heads to Kent but it doesn't all go to plan
Party chairman quits job as hunt for inessential spending at County Hall highlighted.
It has been said many times, but no-one could deny that the week has brought Reform UK some ups and downs as it settles into the task of running Kent County Council.
A rather fractious few days have seen the euphoria at winning in Kent dissipating as the Reform rollercoaster hurtled through the Garden of England.
So, where are we?
Just days ago, Zia Yusuf, the chairman of Reform UK was at County Hall in Maidstone as part of a team of four senior figures from the party to descend on Kent to signal the start of a forensic financial analysis of how millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is spent.
Yusuf, chairman of Reform UK, was among the local government ‘ghostbusters’ audit team charged with pouring over long and detailed financial data that might point to unnecessary spending and help the hard-pressed taxpayer with their bills.
It has been dubbed the UK version of ‘DOGE’ - President Trump’s endeavours to cut public spending in America transplanted to the UK.
Yusuf even filmed a short video in which he praised the new leadership at KCC and fired a broadside at the way some transport contracts had been awarded by the former Conservative administration.
The video even saw him promise that people in Kent could “sleep easy in their beds” now Reform was in charge.
But in a bizarre piece of timing, the PR strategy was overshadowed by the announcement that Yusuf was to quit his job, just at the time it needed to show voters that it could be responsibly run.
What did it all mean? Yusuf himself declined to elaborate on the reasons for his decision, confining himself to a brief posting on X saying the party had achieved historic results in the general election. Continuing as chairman was not the best use of his talents, the statement said.
By any measure, this was a political shock.
Here was the man who had helped deliver more MPs and councillors for Reform UK, announcing that he wanted to give up the role.
Nigel Farage tried to play down the significance of the resignation of Yusuf, but even he acknowledged it was not the party’s finest moment.
Not everyone has been impressed by how the party is being run.
Howard Cox, the Cranbrook man who has successfully led the “fair fuel’ campaign, was prevailed upon to stand for the party in the London Mayoral election. He quit soon after, claiming the party put him under pressure to tone down his support for Andrew Tate, the controversial ‘influencer’.
Meanwhile, there was criticism of the county council for its decision to cancel or postpone formal committee meetings. In the coming month, eight committees in which councillors would normally have been taking decisions or simply discussing issues have been either cancelled or postponed.
It could be read as a sign of political torpitude. Despite the sense of general confusion, opposition parties have kept their powder dry, waiting to see what happens next.
KCC’s opposition Lib Dem group says it will not at this stage use its powers to call an emergency meeting to quiz Reform group leaders about the demand for detailed financial information.
Liberal Democrat county councillor Richard Streathfeild, who chairs the influential cross-party cabinet scrutiny committee, says it will not at this stage use its powers to trigger an emergency meeting to quiz the new leadership.
However, he said if it was shown that the demand was taking officers away from the delivery of key services, that would be a different matter.
“I'm sure that leader will update us but I imagine if in due course there has been no update and it hasn't gone through any committee process and it is something that affects people then the scrutiny committee has a right to have a look at it,” he said.
“At the moment it looks like a complete mess and two members of the team have disappeared so it's not as high on my list as social care is - it is a Titanic waste of time when people's time and energy needs to be focused on the real issues of the council which include an adult social care system that requires improvement …these are those are big issues that administration has responsibility for and of course we want to see value for money.”
The Reform audit team tried to retrieve some ground by announcing that a trawl of KCC’s spending had highlighted £2.8m of irregularities.
In an uncanny coincidence, this figure was the same as one highlighted by KCC’s internal auditors a year ago.
And among the meetings that have either been postponed or cancelled this month? The Governance and Audit committee - the one responsible for overseeing how the council's money is spent and to highlight financial pressure points.
Sounds familiar…