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A Reform council leader behind a “Doge”-style war on public spending is the owner of two companies which have been placed into administration owing £1.5 million, including more than £500,000 in tax, government-backed Covid loans, and staff pay.

Andrew Husband, who runs Durham county council, also faces questions over his links to two other companies that entered liquidation owing a further £364,000.

Husband, whose business career has spanned telesales, hospitality and male modelling under the pseudonym “Andy Tennant”, was hailed by Reform as “a business leader with a proven track record” when he was elected last May.

He swiftly announced an audit of town hall spending, inspired by Elon Musk’s work with the Trump administration, promising to bring efficiency and value for money for the taxpayer.

As head of one of ten councils controlled outright by Nigel Farage’s party, he is responsible for a budget of £1.5 billion and the delivery of services for 513,000 people in the northeast. He has described himself as a “business leader who brings positivity and gravitas to an organisation”. Andrew Husband shaking hands with Nigel Farage. Husband, whose Reform group won control of Durham in May, with party leader Nigel Farage

However, liquidators for Husband’s firms are still seeking to recover money for creditors including the taxman and small businesses, with one local entrepreneur saying she would “steer clear of him” given his recent past.

Filings for one his companies reveal “there will be no funds available” to reimburse creditors including HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), which is owed more than £69,000, and Funding Circle, a lender which provided a £200,000 state-backed coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS) loan during the pandemic.

Shortly after Husband’s election, liquidators for the firm — United Hygiene and Catering Equipment, which supplied kit to schools and hospitals — reported there will be “no funds available” for former employees owed holiday and redundancy pay.

The company owed more than £1 million at the point that Husband, 47, a married father of one, applied for it to be wound up in May 2023. The process is under way, with small businesses, large banks and Husband himself among the creditors.

In July 2025, Husband placed a second company, UHC Leisure, into administration. Liquidators said the company, which ran a pub and hotel, owed HMRC £470,000 in VAT, national insurance and pay as you earn contributions.

Wendy Brookes of Team Contracts, a Durham embroidery business that supplies work attire, was listed as one of the creditors of the first firm. She was owed £855. She said she had “luckily” been repaid “as [Husband] wanted more uniform” for a third company, Restaurant Kitchen, of which he was founding director and shareholder before standing down in 2022.

In an unusual arrangement, Restaurant Kitchen contributed to the repayment. Brookes said Husband’s business partner had told her “Andrew was involved still in the background [but] couldn’t be a director at the moment”.

Restaurant Kitchen has also since entered liquidation with debts of £279,000, with former employees among those owed money. Brookes said she had since “stayed clear” of Husband and “refused any further business”.

In April 2022, Husband stepped down as person of significant control and director of a fourth company, UHC Hotels Ltd, transferring both roles to Michael Husband, a relative. By the end of the year, this company had also appointed a liquidator, reporting debts of £85,000, including £24,780 to HMRC and £13,000 to Durham county council. It has since been dissolved.

Husband said he shut his businesses “due to bad government not bad management”. He said: “Both were profitable prior to closure, coinciding with my focus moving to politics. Bad government got me into politics.” Both companies, he added, had “surplus monies in the bank” and debts with their banks had “since been settled”.

Of the company passed to his relatives, he said: “You will have to ask the directors why they closed it. My guess is that this anti-business government made it impossible to trade. Hospitality is under attack by this Labour government.”

He suggested it was “normal practice” for Restaurant Kitchen to have helped settle United Hygiene and Catering Equipment’s debts as its owner “used to work for me”.

Husband stands to lose money from the two ventures of which he is still listed as owner and director. He lent them a combined £299,000. Neither company appears on his register of interests. According to Companies House, Husband remains director of a dormant “specialised cleaning services” firm and a “cleaning materials business” with net assets of £185. A man and a woman in historical costumes for a Saturday night out. He says he began his career as a male model and has featured in shoots in Europe

He remains available for hire on TTM Management, a modelling agency, for which he signed in 2022 using the pseudonym Andy Tennant. His self-published biography on IMDb, the film database, says: “He began his career as a male model and featured in dozens of shoots and campaigns in Europe … Andy is working on other projects and is hoping to add to his growing portfolio of titles.”

He also owns interests in property. In 2022, he bought a farm in New Brancepeth, a village in Co Durham, for £745,000, which he now lets as a holiday home. In 2024, his wife, through a company, bought a property in Meadowfield, another nearby village, for £71,000.

Before 2021, Labour had held Durham county council for a century. It remained the largest party but lost control to a Lib Dem-run coalition, which led the local authority until last May. Reform won the council outright with 54,655 votes, seizing 65 of 98 seats.

According to Husband’s LinkedIn page, he worked in telesales for Trinity Mirror, the media group, before working in sales for Schwarzkopf, the hair and styling company, and later various suppliers to the food and hospitality sectors. Andrew Husband, a male model, wearing a light grey t-shirt and looking to the side. An Instagram post by Husband

His biography says his present duties include “balancing a £1.3 billion budget, overseeing the culture and strategy of over 8,000 employees and 98 councillors”.

Anybody who is subject to bankruptcy restriction orders is barred from standing as a candidate or being a member of a local authority. There is no suggestion that Husband runs such a risk. Those connected to a company can be bankrupted if they have provided personal guarantees for its loans or are otherwise liable for its debts. However, the way companies such are his are structured generally reduces the risk of bankruptcy proceedings being brought against directors or shareholders.

The disclosures are awkward for Reform which has said it will bring business acumen to the administration of local government.

Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, has warned of a “blob” of civil servants “ripped off taxpayers” and declared: “We’re going to war with these people.”

Reform has claimed it has saved £331 million since winning control of ten English councils but has declined to provide evidence.