Councillors of all stripes have backed a call for Warwickshire County Council to pay for an external investigation into how the result of George Finch's conduct probe was made public.

Conservative group leader Cllr Adrian Warwick moved an emergency procedural motion to ask the authority to commission an external party – as opposed to the council's own legal team – to look into the matter "for transparency and public confidence".

The Local Democracy Reporting Service reported that an investigation, conducted by council-appointed solicitor Claire Ward of Anthony Collins LLP, had found that leader Cllr George Finch had breached the county's code of conduct by publishing information that "could have jeopardised" a child rape case. He was cleared of any wrongdoing against three other elements of the code.

Cllr Finch referenced the matter himself during last week's council debate of a motion to remove him as leader, during which it was said that the county's chief executive Monica Fogarty, the authority's most senior official, had "expressly" told all councillors not to reference any conduct complaints.

In his speech, Cllr Finch alleged that conduct complaints had been "leaked and then further discussed publicly when those matters are yet to be concluded", arguing that they "should be dealt with properly, fairly and through due process".

Cllr Sarah Boad cut in to raise a point of order.

"We were expressly told not to mention the code of conduct and we haven't," she said. 

Asking for Cllr Finch to withdraw his comments, she added: "The rest of us have respected the email we received from the chief executive, I ask him to do the same."

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Cllr Finch replied: "I am just repeating the things the chief executive has said. 

"It is the point that this should concern every single member of this council because it is due process, like the chief executive has said.

"That is why I have asked the monitoring officer for an inquiry into the information and how this has entered the public domain."

Cllr Finch is afforded the opportunity to either accept or challenge Ms Ward's findings through a panel of the council's audit and standards committee. 

If the breach is upheld, monitoring officer Sarah Duxbury – a council employee, its most senior legal official and the ultimate arbiter of conduct complaints – then makes a judgement on what should happen, although the council's options are limited to writing to the councillor concerned, issuing a reprimand by motion, removing the councillor from committees or issuing appropriate publicity.

Cllr Warwick put forward his emergency motion at the end of the day's business, one that was accepted through the discretion of chair Cllr Dale Keeling.

"It is in line with information that is not in the public domain finding its way into the press on Friday," said Cllr Warwick. 

"The Conservative group would request that the investigation into it is not conducted internally but externally for transparency and public confidence."

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Cllr Keeling said he had been "advised the request would go to the monitoring officer to consider the best way to deal with this".

Cllr Warwick reiterated his request on behalf of the Tory group and said: "I am sure all councillors in this chamber will agree to that."

Cllr Keeling warned "there will be a cost involved" with Cllr Warwick replying: "I understand there will be a cost, chair. But in this instance, for procedure, public confidence and transparency, I believe it is a cost worth bearing."

It was voted through without dissent by all councillors still present.