Buckinghamshire local elections 2025: Reform UK candidate wants party to replicate Elon Musk's DOGE

The Local Democracy Reporting Service is interviewing representatives of all the main political parties standing candidates in the elections.

Councillor Paul Irwin defected from the Conservatives to Nigel Farage’s party in February and is standing for Grendon Underwood and the Claydons on May 1.

The 52-year-old’s exit from the Tories was a ‘tough decision’ after they selected him for a ward he did not want to represent.

But the former UKIP councillor said the ‘weak’ leadership of Tory leader Kemi Badenoch was the ‘final nail in the coffin’ for him.

Asked why he joined Reform, he said he believed in ‘controlled immigration’, while stressing he had friends from many different religions and cultures.

But what about his party’s recent suspension of two candidates – one in Bucks and one in Oxfordshire – over controversial social media posts?

Councillor Irwin said racist posts were ‘wrong and stupid’ and that 40 per cent of Reform hopefuls did not pass the party’s ‘strict’ vetting process.

However, he also said controversies over racism or Islamophobia were ‘an easy stick to beat us with’ due to Reform’s strong views on immigration.

He added: “We will pick up some racist people along the way because it might be the closest thing they have got to a proper party.”

The councillor, who owns a mechanic business, was joined in the interview by fellow Reform candidate Steph Harwood, who is representing Horwood.

“I wouldn’t have come into this party if I’d thought it was racist,” she said, “I did a lot of research before I joined.”

In terms of local issues, Councillor Irwin said he was concerned about overdevelopment and that ‘there is nothing wrong with being a nimby’ – ‘not in my back yard’.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t have development,” he explained, “But it is all happening in north and we have got a mega prison just down the road in beautiful countryside.”

Ms Harwood, a retired marketer, said one of Reform’s policies in Bucks would be something similar to the new US Department of Government Efficiency – or DOGE – headed by Tesla and X owner Elon Musk.

The department – whose name matches that of a Japanese dog meme – has seen overseen swingeing cuts to multiple US government departments during President Donald Trump’s second term.

“That’s what we are going to be doing at a local level,” Ms Harwood explained, claiming Reform would examine local government spending in ‘granular’ detail.

Councillor Irwin said Bucks spends money ‘in the wrong places’, claiming the council’s wage bill was ‘through the roof’, pointing to CEO Rachael Shimmin’s £240,000 salary as one example.

He said the council also had too many people in management roles, while making redundancies in areas like democratic services, as well as ‘too many assets’ that ‘need to be sold off’.

“It’s not the worst council by a long way,” he added, “It does balance its books, but I do think we should stop buying shopping centres.”

The councillor added: “If we were in power, I would like to strip the assets down to the bone before staff, get rid of as much assets as you possibly can, and then you look at the staff.”

On council tax, Councillor Irwin said he would like to reduce an overall rise next year to around three per cent, compared to the maximum 4.99 hike the council made again at the beginning of April.

He said: “I am not against raising council taxes. But I believe people want to see value for money.

“So, if your road’s perfect, if your playpark’s perfect, if you’re in a job, if you’re infrastructure’s great, people think, ‘you know what, I might be paying a high tax bracket, but I’ve got value for money’.”

Councillor Irwin is also campaigning for ‘better train and bus links’ as well as ‘better quality repairs and inspections of potholes’.

The Reform member also claimed the 2050 target by which the council aims to reach net zero carbon emissions was ‘not achievable’ – despite the authority reporting last year a reduction in emissions of 78.2 percent compared to 1990 levels.

He said: “I would like to get there one day but not at the cost of jobs, the cost of money. I am against AI and all sorts. I think it is taking jobs off the working man, and it scares me to death for the future.”

Councillor Irwin described himself as an ‘everyday man who speaks from the heart’ and is ‘passionate’ about where he lives, but how does he feel about Reform’s chances?

He said: “I hope that we will get enough councillors that we can at least do a deal with another party to make sure that we get views from a different demographic.

“We need a minimum of six councillors to really make a difference. If we get six to 15 councillors, we can make a difference. We don’t have to run the council to make our voices heard.”