Reform-Run Council Set To Put Taxes Up After Musk-Style Plan To Slash Spending Fails

A Reform UK supporter holds a party placard.A Reform UK-run council has admitted it will have to put up tax next year after an Elon Musk-style bid to slash spending failed.The party swept to power in a stunning result last year amid promises to get rid of waste in Kent County Council.They even set up a department of local government efficiency (DOLGE) based on Musk’s unsuccessful bid to cut the size of the state in America.But Diane Morton, Reform’s cabinet member for adult social care on the local authority, said council tax bills were likely to go up by 5% next year.She told the Financial Times: “We’ve got more demand than ever before and it’s growing. We just want more money.”Another senior Reform member of the council told the paper: “Everyone thought we’d come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away but there just aren’t.”Polly Billington, Labour MP for East Thanet, said: “Reform’s leader in Kent said that Reform councils were ‘the biggest advert’ for what a Nigel Farage government would look like. “Well, she’s right. Now we know what putting Reform in charge means: huge promises about savings, then failing to find any because they don’t know what they’re talking about. That’s what they’re doing in local government and it’s what they’d do to Britain.”Antony Hook, leader of the Lib Dems in Kent, said: “During the election they said vote for us to fix asylum and now they’ve discovered . . . that the county has no role in asylum and won’t be able to cut council tax.“They came into power thinking they would find lots of waste to cut, and they haven’t identified any.”A Reform UK spokesman told HuffPost UK: “Our team in Kent County Council have already done some fantastic work to clean up the mess left by the Kent Conservatives and reduce the county council’s debt by £66 million in their first five months in office. The majority of that has come from savings as a result of their DOLGE unit.”Related...Tory Mayor Predicts Reform Would Win A Majority If An Election Were Held TodayKemi Badenoch Branded 'A Reform Tribute Act' Over Plan To Scrap Climate Change ActKeir Starmer Says UK Is 'At A Fork In The Road' As He Urges Voters To Back Labour Over Reform

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