The leader of Hastings Borough Council and five other councillors have quit the Labour Party and set themselves up as an independent group.
The six councillors said that Labour no longer provided the necessary policies, support or focus on local government and made allegations of vindictiveness and micromanagement.
The row has played out as the council comes close to bankruptcy and against a backdrop of claims of national interference in the selection process for the next local elections.
The Local Government Chronicle (LGC) reported deputy leader Maya Evans as saying: “Locally, we have been micromanaged by Westminster-centric unelected Labour Party officials who have barely visited Hastings let alone understand the town and its residents.”
She has been blocked from standing for Labour at the next local elections on what she described as “spurious” grounds, according to LGC.
Council leader Paul Barnet and his five colleagues said in a statement: “Standing up for Hastings, and especially for our residents, will be much easier as independents”
The other four councillors to quit the party are Andy Batsford, John Cannan, Ali Roark and Simon Wills, with Councillor Batsford suggesting that others would leave Labour to join them.
Councillor Cannan said: “Unelected party officials have undermined Hastings Borough Council leadership over and over again.
“They vetoed a popular co-operation agreement with the Green Party. They have prevented popular local politicians from applying to stand as the local MP and have ‘parachuted in’ their favoured candidate.
“What does all this say about local democracy? They have blocked the deputy leader of the council from standing as a councillor in the forthcoming local election.
“Where once there was a broad church receptive to ideas from all perceived wings of the party, there is now a narrow-minded vindictiveness directed at those on the left.”
But Labour told the BBC that the councillors’ “performative gesture politics has driven the council to the brink of bankruptcy”.
The comment reflected a previous warning by council officials that Hastings Borough Council faces bankruptcy.
The party also said that under Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, Labour had changed fundamentally, adding: “The fact that these councillors, all holdouts from the previous regime, no longer feel the Labour Party is their home is conclusive proof of that.”
Conservative group leader Andy Patmore said: “The council is facing bankruptcy and it seems these councillors are not willing to take responsibility for their actions.
“Their residents and the town deserve better. They should all resign their council seats so that by-elections can be held in their wards and new representatives can be elected.”
But Councillor Batsford told BBC Radio Sussex: “People don’t have to step down when they change party.”
In local elections, he said, the public “vote for people who work hard in their communities”.
