Warwickshire County Council: Reform UK set to confirm new-look cabinet on Friday

A meeting has been called for Friday, May 30, at noon for new leader Councillor Rob Howard (Attleborough) to draft in the authority’s new cabinet.

It is the leader who selects who is appointed with each member tasked with political oversight of the council’s work in key areas such as finance and property, children’s and adult’s social care and services, education, highways and transport and the Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Reform surged from having no county councillors to taking 22 seats at the local elections on May 1, wiping out a Conservative stronghold to hold more seats than any other party but not enough for an outright majority.

A meeting on Friday, May 16, saw the Conservatives – now down to nine councillors – support Reform to form a minority administration, meaning the party will lead the council and take the bulk of the day-to-day decisions, although larger spending plans and some policies will need approval from full council and the backing of at least one other political group.

Since then, questions have been asked as to how quickly Reform would put forward its cabinet and policies for Warwickshire with the Liberal Democrats – now the second-largest party at Shire Hall with 14 seats after gains in the latest ballots – making a plea for clarity at the end of last week.

“This absence of leadership comes at a particularly crucial time for the council,” read the statement.

“Inspections by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of the council’s adult social care services and by Ofsted of the council’s children and young people’s services are due in the next few weeks. These areas are two of the most important services provided to residents in Warwickshire. The last full inspection by Ofsted was more than three years ago.

"One of the key questions the inspection teams will rightly ask is around leadership at the council.”

One appointment has already been made with Councillor George Finch (Reform, Bedworth Central) unveiled as deputy leader but the documents attached for the meeting do not name anyone else.

The council papers confirm Cllr Howard may appoint “up to a maximum of nine other members to form a cabinet” and that the posts, and what they entail, “are a matter for the leader”.

He also has the power to tweak elements of the council’s constitution to fit with the appointments he makes and how he sees the split of responsibilities between elected councillors and the senior officials that are employed by the council.

The report continues: “The leader is invited to confirm and/or amend the delegation of executive functions to members, officers and/or other bodies as set out in the constitution as is necessary in line with this decision.

“The executive director for resources (Rob Powell) is authorised to make such modifications to the council's constitution, and otherwise as may be required, to effect the leader's decisions.”

Cllr Howard has been approached for comment.

After the meeting for all councillors on May 16, Cllr Finch declined to field questions or divert them to a colleague. Councillor Michael Bannister (Reform, Nuneaton Abbey) interjected to say no comment would be made at that point.