The leader of Warwickshire County Council has been urged to dial down the rhetoric over his assault in Nuneaton and invited to sort it out in public – over a cup of tea.

It was reported last weekend that Cllr George Finch had been assaulted at 2am while out in Nuneaton town centre with the Mail Online carrying his assertion that the alleged perpetrator had been “wound up and sent into battle by the dangerous rhetoric of Labour and the Greens”.

He went on to express concern at “the state of political discourse in Britain”, claiming that Reform UK activists “are suffering intimidation and violence at the hands of left-wing instigators”.

“The politicians they follow know this but are willingly allowing it to happen,” Cllr Finch continued. 

“They have a duty to speak out and quell the increased threat faced by my friends and colleagues.”

His stance was publicly supported and commented on by Reform UK’s national leader Nigel Farage MP.

The matter was picked up at this week’s meeting of the county’s cabinet – the Reform UK panel of councillors in charge of major service areas – by Green Party councillor Keith Kondakor, the only candidate to blot Reform’s clean sweep of Nuneaton and Bedworth in May’s county council elections. 

“When we say these things are stirred up by the Greens and Labour, these aren’t helpful comments,” he said.

“I ask that you take a day or so before you ring up your favourite journalist at the Mail to say ‘I have been attacked in Nuneaton’ and don’t actually blame Green and Labour people for it.

“I am a really peaceful person. I think we need to talk more…”

There were chuckles from Reform councillors at that point with Cllr Kondakor continuing: “You laugh but we need to be seen together having a cup of tea so that people don’t think it is the left fighting the right, name calling, etcetera. 

“We need to lower the tone.

"Maybe your comments weren’t as helpful as they could have been, if we can attack the people who are actually aggressive, they’re the people who are responsible for any trouble, and not attack each other that would be really useful.” 

Cllr Finch did not respond directly to Cllr Kondakor’s plea but did take up the offer of a cuppa.

“Maybe we should go for a cup of tea one day to get to know you a bit more, that would be useful,” he said.

It came during discussion of Warwickshire’s community safety agreement, an overarching set of principles that guides the response of councils, the police and other organisations on such matters.

Cllr Kondakor highlighted other concerns including the potential impact of Reform’s plans to cut back on equality and diversity initiatives.

“We have a lot more hate crime and stuff on social media, a lot of people pointing fingers,” he said.

“We have various charities and funding to reduce hate crime, some of which is funded via our equalities and discrimination budget which you wish to cut. I think it is worth looking at where the budgets go and what things have a positive impact. 

“We also have a lot of town centre issues and the police in Warwickshire have not done enough, particularly in Nuneaton and Bedworth. 

“Groups like Nuneaton BID (Business Improvement District) are having to employ their own safety officers in town centres, they are starting to have an impact but we need to work out why we aren’t getting these things funded by police budgets. 

“Businesses and householders pay into the police yet we are almost having to have our own security service for town centres.”