Conservatives in Sussex were dealt another blow today after a Tory councillor announced she was quitting the party.

Anne Giebeler, a Brighton and Hove city councillor who represents the Goldsmid ward in Hove, said she was withdrawing from the Conservative Party because, she said, the party had failed to support her and the residents of her ward.

Her resignation comes two weeks after Sussex Tories were thrown into turmoil with the sacking of Arundel and South Downs MP Howard Flight.

Mr Flight was deselected by party leader Michael Howard after making a speech which implied the Tories were secretly planning to make further spending cuts.

Coun Giebeler was announcing her resignation today by sending letters, emails and faxes to party representatives.

She wants to represent the residents of the Goldsmid ward as an independent.

Coun Giebeler said she had not made her decision to quit in a bid to scupper the Tories in the run-up to the General Election on May 5.

She said she chose the timing because it was the end of the council's financial year. However, her resignation is the latest blow to Conservatives, who are still caught up in a wrangle over their choice of candidate to replace Mr Flight.

The Tories have sought to shrug off renewed controversy after Labour claimed the new candidate for Arundel and South Downs, Nick Herbert, had written in the past in similar terms to Mr Flight's comments on tax and spending plans.

Mr Howard, who was launching his party's manifesto today, has told journalists: "What Nick Herbert said in an article two years ago was a warning to the party, based on a rumour, a whisper as he described it, a warning for the party not to do this sort of thing. He was quite right. He said it would be quite wrong if the Conservative Party said one thing and did another.

"We were never intending to do that, we have never done that, and what Nick Herbert has said is exactly what we are doing."

Coun Giebeler, speaking of her reasons for quitting, complained the party had not backed her when votes were being taken on key issues which affected people in her ward.

She said the final nail in the coffin came when she was branded a troublemaker by Nicholas Boles, the Tory candidate for Hove and Portslade, who is contesting Labour MP Ivor Caplin's seat.

She said she fell out with the Tory candidate at the by-election for the Hangleton and Knoll seat, vacant after the death of Labour councillor Gerry Kielty.

Tory Dawn Barnett took the seat.

Coun Giebeler claims Mr Boles told her she was a troublemaker at the event in October after she complained about a Tories' letter which appeared in The Argus which she said was not necessarily representative of all Conservative Party members.

She complained she should have been consulted before the letter was sent.

Mr Boles, speaking yesterday before Coun Giebeler announced her plan to resign, said: "I am not aware of having ever called anybody a troublemaker.

"She has certainly never suggested that. This is complete news to me and I know nothing about it."

Mr Boles has attended protests organised by Coun Giebeler and the planning campaign group No Inappropriate Development.

He praised her work as a councillor and said he thought she was doing a "terrific job".

He said: "She has made a lot of progress on this issue of people wanting to knock down family houses and I hope I have not done anything or said anything to distress her."