I'm an 18-year-old Reform council leader taking on officials disregarding our democracy

Telegraph

a day ago

This time last year, George Finch was in the middle of his A-levels. Fast forward 12 months, and the 18-year-old politics student at Leicester University is leading a sizeable UK council.
Last week, Finch found himself appointed leader of Warwickshire County Council after Rob Howard, a marketing expert in his 60s who had led since May, quit citing health reasons. Finch, previously Howard's deputy, was announced as interim replacement for the next two weeks, before a formal election takes place.
Over in the House of Commons, the appointment raised a few eyebrows. 'Yesterday's resignation of the Reform leader of Warwickshire county council and his replacement with an 18-year-old will be of real concern to my constituents,' the Labour MP for North Warwickshire and Bedworth, Rachel Taylor, said in the chamber on Thursday, raising questions around Finch's 'qualifications'.
To Finch, the comments are 'such a shame… Look at William Pitt the Younger [elected as an MP at the age of 21].' And, he points out, 'Mike Tyson was the youngest heavyweight boxer of the world', aged 20.
'A blob of bureaucrats'
Finch experienced his first major row in office this week when Monica Fogarty, the council's chief executive, refused his request to take down an LGBT flag flying outside the county hall, in line with Reform's manifesto policy to only fly the Union flag, St George's Cross or county flags, in England. Zia Yusuf, the head of Reform's department of government efficiency (Doge) unit, claimed the refusal showed that 'a coup d'etat is under way in Britain'.
Finch says: 'My question is, and its a simple one: why is there a non-elected bureaucrat on £200,000 or more making decisions that elected councillors should make?
'She is disregarding democracy – I was elected with the biggest majority in Warwickshire and I can't even get a flag changed. It shows me a blob of bureaucrats that are disregarding the majority. I can't imagine what the blob is like in Whitehall if it's this bad here.'
Speaking to The Telegraph from Warwick, where the county council is based, two days after finding himself at its helm, Finch describes the local authority's scope: it has a budget of over £400 million and employs more than 5,000 staff, from officials at headquarters to rubbish collectors and social workers.
As well as being wrong about the principle of an 18-year-old holding such responsibility, Finch says his critics are mistaken about him personally.
'I've seen everything in life. I know I may be 18, and people might think, well, he knows nothing. I've seen a lot, I've experienced a lot more than my age should experience,' he explains.
Finch grew up in Bedworth, a former mining town in the Midlands, where he attended the local Academy, Higham Lane School. Bedworth is a town where people are 'go-getters', he says, 'We want to do something, we want to make change.' His working-class parents undertook night shifts to provide for the family, including his two sisters, one of whom has special educational needs, the other of whom is disabled.
'I know what it's like to have to support people, to have to care,' he says, adding: ' Like Ed Davey [who cares for his disabled son] has had to experience, it's things like that you can't read in a textbook, you can't read at school, you can't go to university and learn it. You have to experience it.'
His mother worked in a factory and as a teaching assistant for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send). His father, meanwhile, worked on construction sites, where Finch helped out in his spare time. 'I was born with a shovel in my hand working on building sites,' he says. 'It's shown me that that's the real world.'
As interim leader, Finch, who is one of 57 Warwickshire councillors (22 of whom are Reform), is working full-time, five days a week. He was appointed as deputy leader in mid-May, having finished his first year at university in early June, and is now considering whether he will continue with his studies next year, or leave and focus solely on his council responsibilities.
Leading an entire county council, which is accountable for everything from education and social care services to road maintenance and local libraries, is undoubtedly a big responsibility for an 18-year-old. The question of qualification, therefore, feels like a legitimate one. Across the country, many will have seen the news reports of his temporary promotion and asked, 'Is he up to the job?'
Finch certainly conveys an air of confidence and presents as a politician. He adopts the cadence and tone of a minister defending the Government's position on the Today programme, and uses tricolons (he is, he says, a man of 'honesty, integrity and transparency'), and Reform buzzwords (he promises to 'make change' and talks up 'Doge', Reform's answer to the US department of government efficiency, started by Elon Musk). It's clear he's been practising. Although he may not be a professional politician yet, he does a very good impression of one.
'I still thank every single person that works in the party that helps and supports councillors,' he says, as a press officer from Reform headquarters listens in to our call. 'A lot of people say to me, 'You're a lot older, you sound a lot older, you act a lot older than you are,'' he adds later. 'I'm more mature with big responsibilities like this.'
Finch didn't always want to be a politician. He took history, law and politics at A-level, and originally planned to be a history teacher. 'I love teaching history, but I can't teach history with the way the curriculum is going, the way the school and the education system is hindering children's futures and young people's futures.'
The answer, he decided, was to reform the education system himself. 'My aim is to change that,' he says, 'and then go back and be a teacher once that's done.' Finch's answer suggests that his ambitions may extend beyond just improving the education services provided by Warwickshire county council. It's certainly not a wild proposition to imagine him being voted in as Reform's youngest MP at the next election.
'People voted for youth and fresh ideas'
Finch is one of a growing number of teenagers across Britain leaning towards Reform, one of whom, Harrison Allman-Varty, a 21-year-old councillor, recently told this newspaper that more than half of his friends now vote for the party.
In July 2024, Reform overtook the Tories as the party of choice among 18 to 24-year-old men: 12 per cent of men in that age bracket voted Reform, whereas only 10 per cent voted Tory. Meanwhile, in Scotland, the party is plotting to get more votes than Labour in next year's Scottish Parliament election, and sees the fact that north of the border 16-year-olds can vote as key to this.
Finch's own conversion to Reform came 14 months ago, in April last year, when Lee Anderson, who defected to the party from the Tories, visited Nuneaton. By the age of 16, Finch was a member of the Tory party and had done a three-day work experience stint in the parliamentary office of Sir Marcus Jones, the former Tory housing minister, who was MP for Nuneaton until losing his Commons seat last year. Jones did not do what the community needed, Finch says.
Anderson, on the other hand, was a favourite of Finch's. 'I loved Lee Anderson, the way he was a straight shooter, straight talker,' he says. 'When I heard he was coming down, I thought, 'I have to meet the legend of Ashfield'. I went down to the event, paid £10 to go and see him, and I bumped into him coming out of the toilet.'
Finch told Anderson that he was considering joining Reform but wanted to hear more about their education plans, including 'getting rid of wokeism in schools'. The robust response from Anderson – whose parliamentary career has been defined by his opposition to woke – was what Finch needed to hear. 'I thought, this is the party,' he says. He joined Reform the next day.
Although he was not old enough to vote during the general election last year, turning 18 just three days later, he campaigned for the party tirelessly. And when it came to council elections on May 1 this year, 'I got North Warwickshire and Bedworth [his parliamentary constituency] galvanised, ready for election,' he says. 'I got 13 out of 13 [Reform] candidates elected.'
Finch was elected councillor with 'the biggest majority in Warwickshire from a Reform councillor – 62 per cent of the vote', he adds. 'People voted for youth; innovative, fresh ideas, and that's what they got.'
I'm honoured to have been elected as a Warwickshire County Councillor for Bedworth Central - thank you so much to everyone who put their trust in me.
Here are my results – 1,563 people voted for me, 62% of the vote a thumping majority of 1,142. This is the biggest majority for… pic.twitter.com/3EMMrFDNhg
— Cllr George Finch (@_GeorgeFinch) May 5, 2025
Having served as deputy leader of the council since May, his most recent appointment to interim leader is simply an extension of his previous role, he says. 'This is just another day at the office for me. Yes, the title is now officially interim leader, but nothing's really changed.'
Finch says his focus so far has been on advocating for children with special needs; in the council's cabinet he holds the children and family services portfolio because, 'I know what needs to be done in this sector. I've researched it a lot.'
But there are other issues he's passionate about. 'I will fix the potholes,' he adds, with admirable confidence. He has arranged a meeting about the issue with JCB, the construction equipment manufacturer, at the firm's headquarters in Staffordshire. He also has a plan to leaflet houses every six months to keep residents updated – and has no shortage of volunteers. 'My phone's gone off five times today, saying, 'Do you want some leaflets doing?''.
During his fortnight as council leader, he also wants to implement a Warwickshire branch of Doge, Farage's national scheme to crack down on waste and inefficiency, modelled on Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency in the US. Headed by Zia Yusuf, Reform's former chairman, the team includes software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors. 'We're going to be speaking to Zia and the party, bringing Doge into Warwickshire. As interim leader, this is what we've wanted, this is what we're going to do, and I'm going to deliver it,' he declares.
Finch says that a freedom of information request by Reform, before the May election, found that the council had spent £330,000 on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) over the last year when, in some parts of the county, 'people are struggling to put food on the table'.
'We do not need to pay £400,000 pounds out of taxpayers' money into DEI. It's gone. The portfolio holder [councillor] that will be looking into it, is looking into it, and he has promised me he will scrap it.'
So far, in the first few days of his new role as interim leader, he's only had 'a few meetings', with the chief executives of the district councils in the Warwickshire area, he says. But he is not short of future plans.
Do those plans include putting himself forward to be the permanent council leader when a vote is held next month? Finch's response echoes the finest traditions of politician-speak, if further evidence was needed that he's in the right field.
'I don't think who's going to put their hat in the ring is relevant at the moment,' he says. 'We have to just crack on with it, and make sure what's best for Warwickshire happens.'