The leader of Haringey Council has sensationally quit – blaming her decision on the ‘sexism, bullying and undemocratic behaviour’ of Momentum activists.
Claire Kober said she will step down in May after her local Labour group was ripped apart by an influx of Corbynistas.
Ms Kober, who has spent 10 years leading the north London authority, said she has faced a volley of personal attacks and cannot put up with it any longer.
Her decision comes after the Labour National Executive Committee – which is now dominated by Momentum – took the rare decision to tell the Labour-run council to halt a controversial private partnership housing scheme.
The move sparked a furious backlash from Labour councillors across the country who wrote a letter rebuking the party’s ruling body for interfering in local democracy.
Claire Kober said she will step down in May after her local Labour group was ripped apart by an influx of Corbynistas (file pic)
Announcing her decision in the Evening Standard today, she said: ‘The sexism, bullying, undemocratic behaviour and outright personal attacks on me as the most senior woman in Labour in Labour local government have left me disappointed and disillusioned.’
Ms Kober warned Mr Corbyn that ‘ideological dogma’ of many of his supporters will do little to improve the lives of ordinary people.
And she hit out at Labour NEC for flouting convention to interfere in how locally elected councillors run their authorities .
She said the decision was ‘legally dubious’ and ‘democratically unsound’.
The Labour-run authority has been plunged into crisis after Momentum activists swept in and have mounted an outspoken campaign against a redevelopment
The labour-run authority had given the green light to £2billion project to convert the old town hall in Crouch End into new housing .
But local Corbynistas have objected to the plan saying it amounts to ‘social cleansing’ and demanding more social housing.
Mr Corbyn suggested at conference last year that public-private housing schemes would be impossible under a future Labour government.
In an open letter announcing her resignation, Ms Kober said she hopes left-wing activists who are expected to seize control of the authority in the MA y elections, will come to the redevelopment scheme with an open mind.
She wrote: ‘Ideological dogma will do nothing to improve their lives; only a determination to find practical solutions – in partnership with other sectors – offers them any realistic prospect of a better, more secure future.
‘For me the responsibility of political office is to work to improve people’s lives even when that means finding solutions that aren’t always an ideologically comfortable fit.
‘Political issues are rarely binary, solutions are not simply good or bad. Political leadership is about setting a vision and working to deliver on it using whatever tools are available.
‘That is how we deliver improved outcomes for the communities that seek to gain most from Labour in government, be that local or national.’
Calire Kober warned Jeremy Corbyn (pictured on Sunday) that ‘ideological dogma’ of many of his supporters will do little to improve the lives of ordinary people