Rachel Banner has linked her departure from the Labour party to a comment she attributed to the Shadow Welsh Secretary, Owen Smith, that Labour has co-opted Welsh nationalism.
I have allowed my membership to lapse for the first time in 20 years. It's partly to do with Owen Smith saying that the Labour party has co-opted nationalism. I don't feel that I belong to the party any more.
– Rachel Banner
Owen Smith argued in a essay published last year that Labour had reaffirmed its position as the “true Party of Wales” by responding to a popular renaissance of Welshness and delivering devolution to Wales.
Rachel Banner (left) with her fellow guests Katie Dalton and Dafydd Elis-Thomas on Sharp End Credit: ITV News, Adrian Masters
Rachel Banner, the Labour politician from Islwyn who was the face of the 2011 'No' campaign in the referendum on increasing the Assembly's powers, has told tonight's 'Sharp End' that she has left the Labour party after 20 years.
Rachel Banner, leader of True Wales, the group that campaigned against further devolution of powers to Wales says: ''It's pretty clear that Welsh Ministers, one by one, are cutting every tie that binds us to the United Kingdom.''
