Labour calls for full disclosure over DOGE contacts with West Northants Council

Cllr Sally Keeble, Labour Group Leader on West Northants Council, has called for full disclosure of contact between West Northamptonshire Council and Reform UK’s so-called “DOGE” initiative.

In particular she has called for:

• Disclosure of the draft agreement between the Council and Reform UK

• Details of the membership of “DOGE”

• How it is constituted.

The move follows her Freedom of Information Request to the Council.

Speaking after the Reform-run council decided to proceed with dealing with DOGE, she said:

“There’s a complete lack of transparency about the Council’s dealing with DOGE. Councillors and members of the public have been left in the dark about decisions that may crucially affect local services and the well-being of residents.

“The emails disclosed in the FOI:

• Refer to a document which is being worked up as an agreement between the two parties. Councillors should have sight of the document to see what is being proposed.

• Include emails from the Party Secretary. This runs in the face of any claims that this is not a party political initiative.

• Include an exchange with Zia Yusuf, who greets everyone as “Hi team”

• Quote the company reference number 11694875 – the number for Reform 2025 Ltd, a private limited company with two directors – Nigel Farage and Richard Tice. Six previous company officers resigned.

“West Northants Council is proceeding apace with DOGE. But a lot of questions are left unanswered. What is in the draft documentation? Who is the Council contracting with? Why is there no proper public procurement?

“On the face of it this looks like a wholly party political enterprise. The papers at Cabinet contained a long list of information that would take huge amounts of officer time to compile. Meanwhile, the information provided in response to my FOI was restricted on the basis that the public interest in disclosure did not over-ridge legal privilege.

“DOGE is an unknown group of people operating under cover of the private company that is Reform 2025 Ltd. We need transparency about this process.”