Politics Home | Reform Council Leader Under Investigation For Sharing Contract With Reform HQ

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Sean Matthews, who became leader of Lincolnshire County Council in 2025, said he had shared an IT contract with Yusuf, who was Reform chairman at the time, soon after he was elected. 

Speaking on the Reform Party podcast earlier this month, Matthews said: “A lot of the work that we have is contracted out, and some of those contracts are ridiculous. Some of them are 25-year contracts.”

He continued: “When I took over last year, there was a new IT contract waiting to be signed and…the contract was put in front of me, and it was an 11-year contract in IT, and you go, this is not something I’m about to sign.

“In fact, I sent it off to Zia Yusuf and said, ‘look, am I being crazy here, is this contract ok?’ He said ‘leave it with me, I’ll have a look at it’.”

Matthews went on to claim that Yusuf “had a look at it” but, in the meantime, he had looked through it himself and come to the conclusion that it was “a lot of money” and “a long time”.

The council leader said he had persuaded the company offering the contract to make some changes, introducing a no-break clause and “they saved us over the period of those seven years, over £20m”.

After Matthews appeared on the podcast, PoliticsHome understands that his comments were raised with the council. As a result, the case was referred to the Council’s Information Assurance Team to be reviewed.

Nigel Farage’s party went into the 2025 local elections pledging to cut council waste through what it described as its own ‘Doge’ (Department of Government Efficiency) unit. 

Inspired by Elon Musk and the Donald Trump administration, and led at the time by Yusuf, the party said this cost-cutting drive would free up money for Reform-run local authorities to lower council taxes.

The plan ran into GDPR issues, with questions raised over what data Reform councillors were legally able to share with senior party figures. Reform-run councils have also been forced to raise council tax, though the party argues they are smaller increases than those implemented by other political parties.

A Reform UK spokesman said: “Reform has a wealth of businesslike experience and we support our council leaders wherever we can. We do that in the right way, with the right boundaries, and our councils have achieved huge savings and efficiencies.  

“We will not take any pathetic lectures from bureaucrats or journalists who whinge if we don’t save money, then whinge if we take action to save money. Reform UK are proven to be delivering better value for taxpayers.”

Lincolnshire County Council did not respond to multiple requests for comment.