Reform has maintained its control at Warwickshire County Council (WCC) with 19-year-old Cllr George Finch today (July 22) only narrowly voted in as the new leader.

Four candidates across the political spectrum were put forward for the role with the vote triggered after Cllr Rob Howard announced he would be standing down as council leader – but not as a councillor – just 41 days after being elected as council leader. 

After Reform was split on whether to choose teenager Cllr Finch to lead them, all their members voted for him to be the new WCC leader, seeing off competition from the Liberal Democrat's Cllr Jerry Roodhouse, the Conservative's Cllr Adrian Warwick and the Green's Cllr Jonathan Chilvers.

The decision was incredibly close though with chairman Cllr Edward Harris having the casting vote and choosing his fellow Reform member Cllr Finch.

Proposing Cllr Finch as leader, Cllr Michael Bannister came out swinging saying Reform is "not failing" and telling opposition parties "you will get the policies when we are ready".

"We have been here two months and they want policy, policy, policy," he said.

"We are professionals, we have come into this business from scratch and we are not going to make a decision on day one, week one, week two just because you keep pressing us. 

"We are looking at what's here, we are talking to the officers, we are embedding ourselves here and when we are ready you will get the policies. 

"You will get the policies when we are ready."

After the Conservatives backed Reform in May's leadership vote, the group said it was now time for a party with a "proven track record" to lead.

As the largest opposition party with 14 councillors, the Liberal Democrats put forward Cllr Roodhouse with proposer Cllr Sarah Boad saying it is "time for change and a new leader".

She said residents were "horrified" with what is happening at Shire Hall and wanted to see "proper government" not "posturing" or "silly, silly things".

Cllr Chilvers actually proposed himself saying he would offer members of all parties a place in his cabinet in a "unitary caretaker administration".

The decision went to multiple rounds of voting, with the candidate with the least votes being knocked out at each round until a majority was reached.

Cllr Chilvers received the fewest votes in the first round, meaning he was eliminated. Cllr Finch struggled to vote for himself in the first round as he could not get the microphone to work.

In the second round the Greens backed the Lib Dems meaning both Cllrs Roodhouse and Finch received 23 votes while Cllr Warwick took just nine, meaning the Conservative leader was knocked out.

In the final vote, the vote was tied with all the Tories abstaining. 

That meant the chairman, Cllr Harris, had the casting vote saying it was something he would "rather not have happened". He chose Cllr Finch. 

Since taking on the role as leader on an interim basis, Cllr Finch has hit the headlines for telling chief executive Monica Fogarty to remove the Pride Progress flag from Shire Hall and then speaking to the national media and whipping up a social media frenzy with party leader Nigel Farage after she refused.

After the decision made one woman shouted from the public gallery "it's a sad day for Warwickshire".