Kemi Badenoch wants to see a British version of the soon-to-be set up US department of government efficiency, her spokesman has indicated.
Businessman Elon Musk is expected to lead a cost-cutting drive when President-elect Donald Trump comes to office in January, dubbed the “department of government efficiency”.
Nicknamed “Doge” – an acronym that shares its name with an internet meme about a dog and the cryptocurrency Dogecoin which Mr Musk once backed – the organisation is expected to take the form of an advisory team rather than a government department.
Doge will be chaired by Tesla and SpaceX owner Mr Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, a businessman who stood as a Republican presidential candidate.
Tory leader Mrs Badenoch is an “enormous fan of Elon Musk and what he’s done with X”, her spokesman said, adding she was “following what he is doing with Doge in the US very closely”.
Asked by journalists if she wanted to replicate the programme in the UK, her spokesman added: “Yes, she does. And in fact, that was one of the things that she was looking to do in the Department of Business and Trade with the smarter regulation program, to sort of finesse government and reduce regulation.”
Mr Musk has said he wants to cut at least two trillion US dollars, one third of the US federal government’s annual budget.
US government staff could face layoffs, agencies could be scrapped, and regulations slashed as part of the initiative.
Mrs Badenoch’s spokesman would not put a figure on the amount of money the Tory leader would want to see cut under a similar drive in the UK, or what areas would see cuts.
“I think there is fat to trim,” he told reporters.
He added that Mrs Badenoch had “long said that there has been over-regulation, that too often our first answer has been more government, and one of her principles is to rewire the state, to make it more streamlined and to do things better for less money.”
The Tory leader met JD Vance, the incoming vice president, during a recent trip to the US where she rubbed shoulders with Republican figures in Washington DC.
She spoke about the drive to cut government spending while there, the spokesman said.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also met Mr Vance when he travelled to the US this week, and signalled he has kicked off talks with Mr Musk for a potential donation to the party.
After the pair were photographed together, Mr Farage said the two had discussed money and that there would be “ongoing negotiations” with the tech billionaire.
The Reform leader described his hour-long meeting with Mr Musk at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Monday as “great” and “historic”, saying he and party treasurer Nick Candy had “learned a great deal about the Trump ground game”.
Mrs Badenoch’s spokesman would not be drawn when questioned about whether Reform UK was preferred to the Tories by senior Republican figures.
“She had a very good meeting with the Republicans out in Washington. There are long and historic links between the Conservative Party and the Republic Republican Party, and we look forward to continuing with those when President Trump takes office,” he said.
