Claire Kober’s leadership of Haringey Council has suffered another blow as a Labour councillor has quit the cabinet this morning, issuing a scathing resignation letter.

In the letter, Cllr Peray Ahmet slammed the controversial Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV) and said “there is certainly no mandate to continue with the divisive and rightly criticised [HDV].”

She said that Cllr Kober’s “top-down style of leadership and failure to collaborate has led to poor decision making on a range of issues.”

She was also concerned that decisions had been made before they were presented to council, where they were brought to be “rubber stamped.”

Cllr Ahmet urged the leader not to take any major decisions before the local elections in May, as only four of Haringey’s ten cabinet members were seeking re-election.

The Noel Park councillor has been re-selected to stand for her ward this year.

She resigned from her position as the cabinet member for the environment, and had previously worked on the council’s landlord licensing, and transport strategy.

Responding to Cllr Ahmet’s letter, the Haringey Council leader said she was surprised at her objections to the closure of Osborne House nursing home, after voting for it less than a month ago.

“I am taken aback by your suggestion that you are opposed to the closure. You were at the cabinet meeting on December 12, that took the decision to close the facility, where you did not make any contribution to the debate, and then went on to vote in favour of closure.”

Cllr Kober also pointed out that Cllr Ahmet had previously supported the HDV, but had changed her mind in recent months. She said: “Your support for the [HDV] at both Labour group and cabinet was consistent until the summer when you abstained in the Labour group vote. More recently your public comments on the matter could be seen to imply your opposition has been both longstanding and principled.”

She disagreed with the point made in the former cabinet member’s resignation letter that the cabinet no longer had a mandate. “A ‘protocol’ that sitting councils should not take major decisions in advance of elections does not exist.”