Rachel has accused Warwickshire’s Reform UK leader of prioritising bailing out Nigel Farage ahead of tackling the county’s pothole crisis.
She said she was appalled that Council Leader George Finch had abruptly cancelled a key meeting about the state of North Warwickshire and Bedworth’s roads to instead go and campaign alongside Reform UK leader Nigel Farage in Clacton.
Rachel had been due to meet Cllr Finch on Friday 7 August to discuss action to tackle Warwickshire’s potholes, including ‘The Trench’, a huge pothole in the centre of Bedworth.
However, Cllr Finch cancelled the meeting at midnight the night before (Thursday 6 August), saying he was no longer able to attend. Cllr Finch later admitted to Rachel that he had spent the day campaigning for party leader Nigel Farage in Clacton.
The Reform UK leader is currently locked in an electoral battle with the satirical alien Count Binface, after calling a byelection to try and evade allegations of sleaze and financial impropriety.
Since February, the Trench has been the scene of two serious accidents, with two local pensioners requiring hospital treatment after tripping on it.
Rachel first reported The Trench to Warwickshire County Council in February, and has subsequently reported it a further eight times. On one occasion the council falsely claiming temporary repairs had been carried out, despite no evidence of this beyond some spray-painted yellow lines.
Rachel said Warwickshire residents deserved better than a Council Leader who was more interested in bailing out his sleaze-plagued boss than getting a dangerous pothole repaired.
She said:
“We all know that when Nigel Farage says ‘jump’, Cllr Finch says ‘how high?’. But this latest episode shows the extent to which the Warwickshire Council Leader is more interested in furthering his glittering political career than he is standing up for local residents.
Warwickshire’s roads are in a shocking state, and The Trench in Bedworth is a danger to the public that has literally put two pensioners in hospital.
I organised this meeting with Cllr Finch to try and get these potholes filled, so it beggars’ belief that he cancelled it without even a day’s notice in favour of going to rescue his scandal-plagued boss from a fight with a cartoon bin.
“Labour has given Warwickshire millions in extra funding to tackle potholes, but spending on fixing them in our area has collapsed under Reform UK. Now Cllr Finch can’t even be bothered to turn up to meetings to be held to account for his actions. He needs to grow up and start doing the job he was elected to do, instead of trailing around after Nigel Farage like a lovesick puppy.”
Spending on pothole repairs has fallen sharply in northern Warwickshire under the Reform UK-led county council, despite the Labour government increasing pothole funding by more than £7 million in 2025/26. Figures obtained by Rachel Taylor MP show spending fell by more than 50% in North Warwickshire and 39% in Nuneaton & Bedworth, a combined reduction of £1.9 million compared with 2024/25.
The cuts risk Warwickshire missing out on further government funding, as councils must spend their baseline allocation to qualify for additional road maintenance money. With Warwickshire already rated “amber” for road maintenance performance, the figures suggest Reform is risking a downgrade to “red” while leaving motorists to pay the price for worsening roads.