Reform council flag rule change survives challenge

Reform Councillor George Finch, leader of Warwickshire County Council, has seen off a challenge to the party's decision to change flag rules at the council

A last-ditch attempt to stifle Reform UK's flag policy at Warwickshire County Council has failed.

The policy will see only the county, Union and St George's Flag fly outside the council's Shire Hall headquarters, unless special permission is granted by the council chairman – Reform councillor Edward Harris.

Opposition Green, Labour, independent and Liberal Democrat councillors joined forces to "call in" the policy and have it reviewed by the scrutiny committee of the Reform-led authority.

The chief executive previously held responsibility for deciding which flags could be flown on council buildings, but was stripped of the power earlier this month.

Independent councillor, Judy Falp, branded the new flag policy "child like" during a scrutiny committee meeting

It comes after a row over flags broke out at the council during the summer, after current chief executive Monica Fogarty blocked Finch's request to remove a Progress Pride Flag from Shire Hall - a re-designed rainbow flag with additional colours to represent a wider range of marginalised communities.

Attempts to have the new policy thrown out failed when the scrutiny committee voted down requests to introduce a cross-party decision-making board with a requirement to publish the reasons behind rejections.

During the meeting, Reform councillor Michael Bannister said the flag debate was "a storm in a tea cup", suggesting opposition parties were "making too much of this".

However, the policy was branded "child like" by independent councillor Judy Falp, who believed it was only pushed through because Reform council leader George Finch did not like "being told he could not do something" by the council's chief executive Monica Fogarty.

Flags flying outside Shire Hall, with the Progress Pride Flag at the centre of the political row pictured on the right-hand side.

Green councillor Sam Jones also suggested the flag policy was "actually about eliminating all things Pride".

"We used to arrest and even castrate people for even being gay in this country, and we did it in living memory," he said.

"Raising the Pride flag is the promise that we, as custodians of this council, make. To do all that we can to ensure that we never return to those days when some people felt like they had to hide from the world.

"It doesn't take a genius to work out that raising the flag of the country that did the castrating and imprisoning and denying the raising of a Pride flag alongside it, doesn't exactly send the most welcoming of messages.

Green Councillor Sam Jones suggested the flag policy was "actually about eliminating all things Pride".

But Bannister said the reason for the policy was that "no one organisation should be put above another".

Councillor Michael Bannister (right) sat next to leader George Finch as he defended the Reform Party's flag policy at the scrutiny committee meeting

"No one should feel that this is part of any attack upon anybody in any part or sector of the community, whether they're outside or inside Shire Hall as employees," he said.

"That is not the point, it is a clear and simple policy, it's there for the future, it is not in any way discriminatory whatsoever.

"I think the fuss and furore over it is being raised by a small number of people who are not representative of the whole of the community of Warwickshire."