'No-confidence vote worked in our favour' - Reform

The leader of a Reform UK-run council who survived a vote of no confidence in March has said it backfired on his political opponents at the ballot box.

Warwickshire County Council leader George Finch won a seat on Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council last week, and said people on the doorstep had taken his side in the dispute.

He also said that while he welcomed scrutiny, the vote had been an act of "political sabotage" by a "leftie cabal trying to take us out".

His party now has the most seats on Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council and he said "the people wanted Reform" and they would try to run it as a minority administration.

Speaking about the number of seats in the borough council chamber, he said: "The socialist left, Labour and the Greens, they only amount to 14 if they combine together. We have 15, so all the Tories need to do is abstain."

He did not say if he planned to run for leader of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council too, but said: "We bring the experience, we've been in there for a year, I've ran a council for a year."

The motion of no confidence was put forward by Warwickshire's Green Party group leader Jonathan Chilvers.

He said he had submitted the motion due to incidents including a dispute with police over their handling of a case involving the rape of a 12-year-old girl and a row with the county council's chief executive, Monica Fogarty, over Pride flags.

Finch survived when 26 councillors voted for the motion and 27 against, while two councillors abstained from voting.

Speaking to BBC CWR on Monday, Finch said: "The reason why there as a vote of confidence was the socialist left got terrible results at the county council elections, couldn't win at the ballot box, so they decided to play dirty party politics."

"It backfired during the election," he said, "because when I was knocking on doors in Bedworth people were saying those people trying to take you out, ousting you, are usurping the democratic [process]."

Finch's father, Stuart, also won a seat on Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council and Finch said his father had "worked hard" on the election campaign.

"He's stood up to fight back and many people across the country are feeling the same," he said.

Finch promised to "open the doors" to the borough council and added: "We're going to go in and we're going to shake it up."

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