Warwickshire County Council has appointed an external solicitor to investigate complaints related to leader George Finch's public comments about a child rape case.

Complainants allege that Cllr Finch breached the council's code of conduct when commenting publicly on the charging of two men with offences related to the rape of a child under the age of 13 in Nuneaton.

Those allegations were assessed by monitoring officer Sarah Duxbury – the council's most senior legal official – who decided there was enough to warrant an independent investigation.

That call sees the return of a familiar name with solicitor Claire Ward of Birmingham-based law firm Anthony Collins, who oversaw the investigation that cleared three Warwickshire councillors over their comments about children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families, drafted in to judge whether there has been any breach and to what extent.

The council's website states that its code of conduct complaints process focuses "only on allegations that we believe have the potential to damage the public's confidence in local democracy".

It details how the filtering process led by Ms Duxbury typically only takes forward those deemed to be "serious enough, if proven, to justify the costs of an investigation" or "part of a continuing pattern of less serious misconduct that is unreasonably disrupting the business of the council".

It adds that complaints deemed to be "malicious, relatively minor or tit-for-tat", "substantially" the same as others, related to acts carried out in a councillor's private life or lack information will "not normally" be referred for investigation.

If a breach is found, the council is limited to writing to the councillor concerned, issuing a formal censure – reprimand – by motion, removing the councillor from committees and issuing a press release or other appropriate publicity but the political consequences could be more significant, particularly as Cllr Finch's administration runs the county council without the benefit of a majority.

Cllr Finch's comments came on the back of Warwickshire Police charging two men with offences related to the rape of a child aged under 13 in Nuneaton on 22 July, 2025. 

They included a letter, headed with the Warwickshire County Council logo, to then-home secretary Yvette Cooper (Lab), the chief constable of Warwickshire Police Alex Franklin-Smith and county council chief executive Monica Fogarty that was published on Cllr Finch's X – formerly Twitter – and Facebook pages on Sunday, August 3.

The following day, Cllr Finch spoke on the matter at a Reform UK press conference led by the party's national leader Nigel Farage MP in London. It was attended by national and international publications and broadcasters.

Mr Farage was questioned over whether Cllr Finch had risked prejudicing the case with his comments.

Deputy political editor of The Guardian Jessica Elgot asked: "Are you in any way concerned (that) the comments Mr Finch made earlier might put a trial and a potential conviction at risk…"

Mr Farage firmly interjected: "No."

Ms Elgot clarified that she was referring to "some of the terms used to describe the case".

Mr Farage replied: "I can imagine if I was the leader of Warwickshire County Council and I was getting the level of distress from voters and residents that George is feeling, if that means he was slightly emotional, well do you know what, good. Good."

The Local Democracy Reporting Service has decided against publishing any of the comments while the Mulakhil-Kabir case remains live.

When approached on the complaints, Warwickshire County Council issued a statement. 

It read: "The council does not provide details of individual complaints that have been made against councillors as it would not be in those councillors' reasonable expectations for such details to be released whilst any matters are still being considered or investigated. 

"This is in accordance with data protection law and is consistent with decisions made by the Information Commissioner."

We have asked the council whether it will publish details and outcomes of all concluded investigations, or at least those where a breach has been found, and to clarify the elements of data protection law and precedents from the Information Commissioner that it is relying on.

The query has been acknowledged and we are awaiting a response. 

Cllr Finch fielded our queries but declined to comment or clarify whether he would be prepared to comment once the investigation concludes.