Not true, Nigel: Farage makes bogus claim about £1m council savings
Exclusive: A fact check of Farage’s national TV claim shows he is making up the numbers
By Sarah Ward
A claim by Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage that the party has saved £1m in IT costs since taking charge at West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) is untrue and ‘hard to validate’ according to the authority.
At the weekend the Reform UK frontman told the one million plus viewers of the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show that since taking charge at WNC in May his party had made £1m savings in IT costs.
The claim flummoxed many, including senior staff at WNC and NN Journal has seen a report produced yesterday by the council, which concludes that it is ‘hard to validate the £1m quoted by Reform UK and what this figure relates to.’
WNC along with its counterpart North Northamptonshire Council are among the first in the country that will undergo the ‘Doge’ treatment that the party promised in the run up to the election. (Doge is an American term and stands for Department of Government Efficiency.)
Doge will involve unnamed and unpaid specialists having a look at the authority’s data in order to try to suggest ways of making financial savings. The party, which is ahead in the national polls currently, had made much of what it calls council overspending in its campaigning.
The WNC report says the authority began looking at new Microsoft licences in November last year, which is seven months before Reform UK took over the authority.
It goes on to say that the report about the new contract, which had negotiated a likely £320,000 saving on a 'like for like contract’ had not gone to the then Tory administration for sign off because of the upcoming election period.
The report says that when Reform took over Cllr Andrew Last, the new cabinet member for HR and Corporate services, said that after seeing the draft cabinet paper, where a £1.85m sign off was suggested, that more money could be saved.
The report states:
“He added that his conversations with “other councils” had revealed that typically up to 25% of staff used the more cost-effective (and less functional) F3 licenses and that implementing this within WNC would accrue cost savings in the order of £1m.”
“The Cabinet paper then went to Cabinet for approval on 3rd June. As the paper says this was to get permission to procure and enter into the final E3 M365 contract to start on 1st July 2025. This was professionally judged to be the most suitable and effective licence arrangement for WNC current and future needs.”
It continues:
“It is clear from the movement from January to May that a financial reduction of £201k had been achieved by the DTI team whilst we were still finalising the Cabinet report and prior to the new administration. But the negotiation of the Microsoft agreement is by its nature an iterative process with the position improving as we get closer and closer to Renewal.
“Savings on this contract were generated by the wider work of the DTI team and the council to achieve value for money. This is normal in contract negotiations where discussions continue right up to the signing of the contract in order to maximise value for money.”
The cabinet report, which was officially signed off by the cabinet, agreed to procure a new contract and states ‘the annual cost of renewal is £1.85m.’
Therefore no savings were agreed at the meeting.
NN Journal called Cllr Last yesterday to ask about Farage’s claim and he said he was in a meeting and could we call back at lunch. When we called back he did not answer.
We also asked the party’s national media officer, who said:
“As far as I am aware, this was part of the internal Doge efforts rather than the Reform UK Doge team.
“Doge is about finding efficiencies, that’s what we pledged in all our local campaigns. This work was undertaken by a reform cabinet sticking to this pledge.”
The council does not have an internal Doge team, rather a team of senior officers.
Farage’s bogus claim has incensed many within the council who are already wary of the Doge initiative and do not think it is legitimate.
Leader of the Labour group Cllr Sally Keeble is concerned that the national party is dictating to the local politicians, all of whom are politically inexperienced.
Lib Dem leader Cllr Jonathan Harris said Farage and the Doge initiative ‘does not have a good taste’ and it is requiring officers to walk a line. He said it is exhausting trying to constantly watch what Reform is doing and whether the claims they are making are true.
He said:
“This is what Reform UK do. Make proclamations that unfortunately often go unchecked and unchallenged. But facts matter. Officers have clearly indicated that the £1m savings is spurious and that any savings identified with these IT licences was part of the normal business of contract negotiations and absolutely nothing to do with Doge.”
Say something often enough and loud enough, and people just believe it, because it suits them to. Scary times.
Nige blowing the Reform Trump-et again. It works over there and will probably fool enough people over here as well.