Reform's George Finch confirms bid to lead second Warwickshire council
Councillor George Finch already leads Warwickshire County Council but is standing for leader of Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council
Last updated 5 hours ago
Warwickshire County Council leader George Finch is standing for leader of a second authority having been chosen to head up Reform UK’s group at Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council.
Reform UK won 15 out of the 19 seats available in last week’s borough council elections to become the biggest political group, but similar to the situation at Shire Hall they do not have a majority.
Having not been represented at the borough authority before, the Reform councillors who won seats had to pick a group leader with Cllr George Finch (Bede) standing unopposed.
His deputy will be Councillor Mike Bannister (Attleborough) who also serves on the cabinet at county level as the portfolio holder for customer and localities – it comes a month after he lost a county group vote to be deputy leader of Warwickshire.
A press statement from Cllr George Finch read: “Having received the backing of my group on NBBC, the next step is to put forward my proposal for Reform to govern as a minority administration.
“Once this proposal is accepted at full council later this month, we will start delivering real, noticeable change for the people of Nuneaton and Bedworth.
“The future is bright for NBBC under Reform.”
He seems likely to get his way. Only half of the seats on the borough council were up for grabs but with Reform now holding 15, Labour 11, the Conservatives nine and the Greens three, everyone is short of the magic number of 20 for outright control.
Whether or not the Tories will be willing bedfellows remains to be seen but it would take an unlikely alliance of the other three groups to stop Reform taking charge.
Each councillor will get to vote for or against proposals for leader at next week’s council meeting (Wednesday, May 20) but they can also choose to abstain, essentially not vote either way.
If the Tories take that option, Labour and the Greens would fall short of being able to block a Reform-led proposal.
The flaw with a minority administration is that whoever takes charge will need either support, or at least no dissent, from opposition parties on key votes as they go along.
That would be the case for at least two years if Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council is around in any meaningful way for that long – as things stand the council is due to be abolished and replaced by a unitary authority by April 2028.