Latest news with #George Finch
BBC News
23-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Teenage Warwickshire council leader George Finch 'wanted to teach'
George Finch had planned to be at university studying to become a history at the of 19, he has become the youngest council leader in the UK, running Warwickshire County Council with a budget of £ Reform UK councillor still lives at his family home and cannot yet drive. Facts which have led to jibes in public and private from some opposition became the largest party on the previously Conservative-led authority with 23 seats in May's local elections. Speaking exclusively to the BBC, he hit back at criticism about his lack of life and professional experience – labelling those turning their noses up at his appointment as "ageist" and "not relevant".Sitting down in the leader's office, shortly after scraping through a leadership vote at the council's Shire Hall headquarters, Finch called out his said: "All I see is age… I don't care about my age. Would people be questioning if there was a 70-year-old at the helm? Probably not."Joe Biden, Donald Trump, presidents that are older – no-one questions it. But they're questioning someone who is 19." But leading a £2bn organisation is not a typical job for a 19-year-old, and Finch admitted he had had other plans."I wanted to be a history teacher. I loved history and I loved teaching but the problem was the curriculum, especially history. Universities and colleges are a conveyor belt for socialist wokeism."Finch said he had been inspired by Reform and former Conservative MP Lee Anderson, who has previously criticised educational establishments for what he perceives as teachers pushing "dog whistle divisive politics" on April, National Education Union members called for funds to be used to help campaign against Reform UK candidates. The organisation, Britain's biggest teaching union, branded Reform UK "a racist and far right" party. In his time as interim leader, Finch said he had used his new "influence" over education by calling Anjit Samra, CEO of Stowe Valley Multi-Academy Trust, to his office after a row over a union jack dress at Bilton School, in Rugby."I don't have the power to tell him what to do as he's an academy, but I do have that influence. "I asked him simple, I said 'I would like to see, and I think it's in your best interests, if you have a school assembly on the importance of British culture'."Asked what his friends made of his new job, he said: "They love it, when I have to go to the pub I don't have to buy a pint." But why did Reform appeal to him and why is it gaining momentum with some young people?"People can't afford homes, they can't have a car, postgraduate jobs are decreasing. It's getting harder for us to see a good future, a better future. And with Reform UK, that's what gives people that hope."He said he thought his appointment would probably help attract people to the party."It shows that anyone can do anything in this party, if you're up to the task. If you've got that merit-based system - and that's where we've gone wrong for far too long in the private and public sector."He added: "It's 'oh, here's a job because of your skin colour or your creed or your religion'. No, you get the job because you're good at it." A keen rugby player, Finch is used to battling on the pitch. But it was in the corridors of power where he faced his first public fight, in a row with the council's chief executive Monica Fogarty, after he asked for a Progress Pride Flag to be removed from outside Shire Hall in UK leader Nigel Farage even waded into the row calling out what he perceived as "obstructionism" by council officials saying "Warwickshire is a very, very good example".Asked if he could work with the council chief executive and other officers, Finch said: "We have done. We have to have that professional working relationship."Pushed on whether it was professional to publicly call out the council's chief executive, he said: "We're working together, the council is running. I think you're looking too deep into this." Talking about his priorities for Warwickshire over the coming months and years, Finch said having a sister with special educational needs and disabilities meant he had a keen interest in the area which has been labelled a financial threat to the future of the has pledged to cut wasteful spending and improve the efficiency of the councils it runs. But some of its spending decisions have faced criticism, while opponents say there has been little concrete action to reduce Warwickshire, opposition parties have criticised Finch and his party for planning to hire political assistants at a cost of up to £190,000 a year, saying the money should be spent on front-line services contentious area is the potential scrapping of lower-level councils as part of the Labour government's devolution said he wanted to look at these ideas in his county and he would like to see areas such as Nuneaton and Bedworth given their own town councils.
BBC News
18-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Reform seeks to spend up to £570k on three assistants at council
The interim leader of Warwickshire County Council has put forward plans to hire political assistants at a cost of up to £570,000 a assistant would serve each of the three largest parties on the council - Reform UK, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. Their salary would be up to £190,000 Finch, leader of Reform, which is running the authority as a minority administration, said it was necessary because council staff have been "unable to help come up with the imaginative ideas" to resolve key Lib Dems, Labour and Green Party oppose the idea. Lib Dem leader Jerry Roodhouse said money should be "spent on frontline services and not on political assistants". National legislation allows councils to employ up to three people for this role, one for each of the authority's three largest groups, providing they have at least 10% of the seats assistant's role is to "undertake research and provide administrative support to members of political groups in the discharge of any of their [council] functions".While they would be restricted in what they could say, they are allowed to "speak to the public with the intention of affecting support for a political party" and publish material intended to gain support for a political salary range for these jobs is between £151,000 and £190, 19, will present his proposals at a full council meeting on Tuesday, when a vote will also be held to decide if he should become leader of the Finch was confirmed in the role, he would be among the youngest in that position in the country and, in Warwickshire, oversee a budget of half a billion pounds along with council assets worth £ weeks ago, the Reform UK cabinet unanimously accepted principles set out in the council's medium-term financial plan, which included the assertion that it would "be necessary to set a very high bar for new permanent budget allocations". Disagreement over plans In a statement, Finch said: "For years, the council administration has relied on the corporate policy team to come up with the innovative ideas required to shepherd Warwickshire through the crises we face. "We've found this team to be unable to bring about the change we were elected for."He said the council needed a "fresh, bold approach to policy creation".But Roodhouse said: "I would rather spend £150,000 on family support workers or something that is useful in the community."Green Party group leader Jonathan Chilvers said he was "very surprised" by the proposal and added: "Their claim to voters was that they would cut 'wasteful' council spending, and yet their very first proposal does the exact opposite."Labour group leader Sarah Feeney said: "Given that we are at a time when there are massive cuts to services to balance the books, this seems like an unnecessary expense."The Conservative group said it had not yet made up its mind on the proposals. This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations. Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
