Speaking on the eve of today's council meeting, at which elected mayor Martin Winter will announce his new-look cabinet, Independent group leader Garth Oxby said "the gloves were off".

Political turmoil has gripped the authority all week since it emerged that Mayor Winter had formed a breakaway "gang of three" with fellow cabinet members Stuart Exelby and Eva Hughes.

The council has also been rocked by two highly critical reports, in which Government watchdogs slammed the running of the council and said members should give more time to delivering services.

As reported in yesterday's Yorkshire Post, Mayor Winter blamed the problems on Labour members, describing them as "bullies", "militants" and a "maggot in the body of the Labour Party in Doncaster".

Yesterday, Coun Oxby claimed deals had been done between the Labour group, which Mayor Winter has abandoned, and the Conservative group to ensure that other parties were kept off council committees.

He said: "I can live with some of the shenanigans, but the truth is that some of the council's services are in disarray and that means that the people of Doncaster are suffering while all this goes on.

"There was an opportunity this week for everybody to get together and work together to share ideas and get these services back on track.

"But the opportunity has been wasted.

"People are only in this for finance and ego and not to serve the people who elected them. That is why we will be waging war at the meeting. We have got serious trouble in a lot of services, including children's services.

"But with things they way they are, nothing is going to be done to sort them out. Problems in children's services are putting the borough's children at a disadvantage. I am not prepared to sit back and let that happen."

Mick Jameson, spokesman for the Labour Party said it would be "interesting" to see how the make up of council committees would be decided at the meeting and described Mayor Winter's actions as "outrageous".

He added: "Nothing really surprises me when Martin is concerned but for Eva Hughes in particular to be taking part in this is unbelievable. She was only re-elected on May 1 because of the work of Labour members.

"Quite frankly, Martin's comments are absolute rubbish, and I believe he said these things as a ploy to distract attention from what he and his two colleagues have done. They can't call themselves Labour now because that is illegal so we will have to wait and see what happens."

Mayor Winter was unavailable for comment last night.