Claire Kober has resigned as leader of Haringey council in a move that will be cheered by the large number of residents and campaigners who were working to block the ‘HDV‘ project she championed to transfer large numbers of council houses into public-private ownership without guaranteed social housing to replace them.

As have some other pro-HDV councillors in the borough who have been deselected or have chosen not to stand, Ms Kober has lashed out at the ‘sexism’ and ‘bullying’ of supposedly ‘Corbynista’ anti-HDV campaigners – and at the decision of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to ‘intervene’.

In fact, the NEC’s ‘intervention’ was a request to pause and an offer to mediate – an offer which Ms Kober rejected.

Ms Kober also attacked the ‘ideological dogma’ of opponents of her housing plan – but well-known journalist and local anti-HDV campaigner Aditya Chakrabortty had a very different take on events:

In his final tweet, Chakrabortty linked to a video in which he debated the HDV with the council’s housing lead – and the latter failed to acknowledge the absence of a social housing promise in the plan. The SKWAWKBOX published that video with subtitles at the time, so here’s that version:

A local female Labour activist was infuriated by Ms Kober’s claim of sexism and bullying, telling the SKWAWKBOX:

It’s good she is gone, but I get so frustrated when people claim they’ve been bullied for being x or y when in reality what has happened is they have been told that the consensus is not with them on a political matter. It devalues the experiences of people who have suffered. Claire has made zero arguments to demonstrate that she has been bullied because she is female, merely makes an allegation of bullying and states her gender. I find it deeply unpleasant and disingenuous.

Whatever Ms Kober’s reasons for resigning, residents, housing activists and many local Labour members will be celebrating what Chakrabortty calls ‘the single biggest victory for housing campaigners’.

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