Reform cabinet member resigns over 'no cuts' quote

A councillor in charge of purging wasteful spending has resigned after being quoted saying his authority had "not made any cuts".

Matthew Fraser Moat was head of local government efficiency at Kent County Council but stepped down from the cabinet on Tuesday after an interview with the Financial Times.

The Reform UK councillor claimed his words were "twisted" but it had become clear that continuing in the role was "not sustainable".

The council, controlled by Reform since the party unseated the Conservatives in May, said it had "instilled a value for money, efficiency and commercial culture".

According to the newspaper article, Fraser Moat claimed the council "had not actually made any cuts" since Reform UK took over and pledged to open the books to find where waste might lie.

The councillor, head of Reform's Department of Local Government Efficiency (Dolge) initiative in Kent, reportedly said: "We haven't cut front-line services other than what the Conservatives had already planned to do."

Paul Chamberlain, a deputy cabinet member, was quoted in the article saying: "We made some assumptions that we would come in here and find some of the craziness found in America and that was wrong, we didn't find any of that."

Dolge launched in June with the backing of former party chairman Zia Yusuf, who quit the role shortly afterwards. It was modelled on billionaire Elon Musk's Doge advisory group as part of Donald Trump's second term as US president.

"I wish we could have found those big savings for Zia, it would have been a better story, but we didn't," Chamberlain reportedly told the Financial Times.

The Financial Times reporting "does not accurately reflect the position at Kent County Council and presents a selective account of the council's work on efficiency and value for money", according to the authority.

It said next year's budget included £14m of savings secured specifically to ensure that council tax increases for residents are kept to a minimum.

The tax will rise by 3.99% under the current draft proposals.

Liberal Democrat group leader Antony Hook told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the council's statement "reads to me like Dolge is dead" and that the group "did little and was a waste of money".

In his resignation statement, Fraser Moat said he had "tried to balance my council responsibilities with the responsibilities of my family business" but that the "pressure of giving my best to both roles led to a lapse of judgment".

He said: "I was very disappointed to see my words twisted to fit what I believe to be an anti-Kent County Council narrative by the newspaper in question."

Conservative councillor Sarah Hudson said the comments in the newspaper were "not saying anything that is news to those of us who were in the last Conservative-run administration".

"There was no wastage," she said.

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