Two thirds of Warwickshire's Reform UK councillors backed George Finch in a two-horse race to lead the group's bid to retain control of the county council.

As deputy to predecessor Cllr Rob Howard, Cllr Finch stepped up on an interim basis last month and won a vote to lead Reform UK's 22-strong group of councillors at Shire Hall. 

He has confirmed that he faced competition from Cllr Scott Cameron but emerged victorious by 15 votes to seven when Reform UK held its ballot last Friday.

Reform UK won the largest number of seats in May's county council elections but while they did not have enough to command an outright majority, Cllr Howard gained enough votes for them to take office thanks to support from the Conservatives. 

Cllr Howard's resignation as leader – but not as a councillor – on health grounds means that process gets reset with the whole council tasked with electing a new leader on Tuesday.

The meeting, which is open for the public to attend, starts at 10am.

Cllr Cameron has yet to be involved in the cabinet – the panel of councillors chosen by the leader to take charge of major service areas – but appears to have been quite active in his area since winning the seat from Conservative incumbent Dave Humphreys by more than 600 votes.

Earlier this month, Cllr Cameron published that he had held a meeting with the firm behind a landfill site in Packington about a potential solar farm, furthered requests for double yellow lines in Corley, committed his delegated budget to a fence to address parking problems in Corley, called for the county's highways department to completely relay the road surface on Packington Lane, Maxstoke, visited Shustoke Primary School to work through "issues", started work towards a new crossing on Coventry Road and the resurfacing of High Street, Coleshill, as well as having involvement in trying to tackle anti-social behaviour in Arley.