"Finally, we can put an end to this, and the media can have some better questions to ask than regarding flags", said the leader of Warwickshire County Council after announcing a new flag policy would be coming into cabinet.

At today's press conference (29 August), which took place at Shire Hall, Cllr Finch announced the flag policy would be decided by the chairman of the council.

He said: "It's a pretty fair policy that I doubt anybody on the council will disagree with.

"It's taking it out of politics, it's taking it out of my hands…and it's putting it into the hands of the chair of the council, which is a non-political position."

The decision follows on from the public row that erupted at the end of June when Cllr Finch asked the council's chief executive, Monica Fogaarty, to remove the Progress Pride flag that had been flying for Pride month.

When asked if Cllr Finch, as the leader of the council, would have any influence over this flag policy, he repeatedly expressed that he was not the chairman and therefore would not have any say in it: "I am not the chairman, so no," he affirmed.

Regarding the matter of flying the St George's cross, for St George's Day, Cllr Finch said: "St George's flag represents everyone in Britain....

"It makes people ask, 'Can we not celebrate our own country?'"

When asked if the flag was being used to represent racist attitudes, Cllr Finch said: "I think what you are doing there is taking a small minority of people who use the flag in a certain way, and slapping a label on it, given the majority of people love this flag.

"We need to support the majority of people, not necessarily the minority all of the time." 

Responding to the suggestion that the St George's flag had been hijacked as a scaremongering tool, he said: "I think saying Reform hijacked it is crazy.

"As a party, we want to represent our country with civic pride, and for you to label the St George's flag as racist, I think that is pretty anti-British."