Warwick District Council Leader Faces Removal Vote on 11 November

Updated 13 November: the motion was defeated on 11 November, so Cllr Davison stays on as leader. The council’s summary of decisions records the result; how councillors voted and what happens next. Earlier, he named a smaller, all-Green Cabinet (see who does what now), and both sides set out their case again on the eve of the vote (below).

Warwick District Council will hold an urgent meeting on Wednesday 11 November to debate removing its leader, Green councillor Ian Davison. The agenda, published on Tuesday 3 November, sets the meeting for 6pm at the Town Hall in Leamington, and it has one main item.

The motion comes after Labour left the coalition that has run the Warwick district with the Greens since May 2023. For residents, it means a possible change at the top of the council, six months before the district elects a new one in May 2027.

What the motion says

Conservative Cllr Andrew Day, a former leader, will propose it and Cllr Richard Hales will second it. It says that, following Labour’s withdrawal and given the work ahead on local government reorganisation, the South Warwickshire Local Plan, the 2027/28 budget and housing, the council “removes the Leader (Councillor Ian Davison) and seeks to replace him”. It doesn’t name a replacement.

Seven councillors asked for the meeting. The council’s own list shows four Conservatives (Day, Hales, Jan Matecki and Peter Phillips), one Liberal Democrat (Alan Boad), one from Whitnash Residents Association (Judith Falp) and one Independent (Paul Wightman).

Why the coalition ended

Green Party members voted in October for a policy declaring Zionism to be racism. Labour told Green groups to reject it or lose their power-sharing deals, and the BBC reports Labour has pulled out of such deals on 11 councils, Warwick among them. Warwick’s Green councillors said in an open letter that they generally don’t agree with the motion. The BBC reports they said they couldn’t call for it to be overturned.

How the seats add up

Those are the figures on the council’s website on 3 November, 44 seats in all. The vote needs a simple majority of councillors present and voting, and abstentions don’t count, the Local Democracy Reporting Service says. We haven’t seen how the Labour or Liberal Democrat groups as a whole plan to vote.

What each side says

The reporting service first reported the planned vote, through Warwick Nub News and the BBC. Cllr Day told it that the Greens are divided and lack the talent to steer the council through the big decisions alone, and that he’d prefer a cross-party arrangement until May. He said he’d be very reluctant to lead again and won’t stand in 2027.

Cllr Davison called it political point-scoring and said the Greens would carry on as a minority, talking to all groups. He argued that changing course with six months left would mean little gets done, and said nobody had yet put a coherent alternative to him. He has since named a seven-member Cabinet, all Green, and taken planning and the Local Plan into his own portfolio. Labour had held three of the nine seats.

On the eve of the vote, both men spoke to the reporting service again, through Warwick Nub News. Cllr Davison called the bid a “sore” reaction to the Greens sorting out what the Conservatives left behind, pointing to housing: in 2024 the council referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing over fire safety and condition surveys. Cllr Day said it wasn’t personal, defended his administration’s record on council homes and waiting lists, and said the real issue was Cllr Davison not saying plainly that the Green Party’s motion on Zionism is unacceptable.

What happens next

The council’s calendar still lists a Planning Committee at 6pm the same night, with no papers published, so check before you travel. Questions go to committee@warwickdc.gov.uk or 01926 456114. All this comes as the council prepares for the new council it would share with Stratford from 2029.

Alex Harrington