PLAID Cymru has gained its first councillor in Newport following the defection of Labour's Garry Brown.

And five other members of the Tredegar Park Labour party, including former branch party chairman Keith Bennett, have followed their ward councillor across the political divide.

Explaining his decision exclusively to the Argus, Councillor Brown, 52, said: "New Labour in Newport is putting the party before the people and I cannot do that. I was elected to represent the people of Duffryn, and my loyalty is first and foremost to them. The people of Duffryn have seen nothing but a decline in their living standards since they elected a party which was supposed to represent them.

"I want to work for a party which actually represents the interests of people of my ward. Plaid was the only choice."

Mr Brown, of Partridge Way, moved to the estate when it was built in 1979 and has represented the ward since 1983. He was scheduled to be mayor of Newport in 2004-2005.

He said the Labour party's handling of the Corus crisis was the final straw for him. "Labour have got all that majority in Parliament. They could have saved Llanwern. But all they did was blame Corus. That was the end."

Mr Brown is the latest in a series of defections trumpeted by Plaid over the past month. In Swansea, Wayne Beard, a former approved list candidate for Labour, and Fishguard town councillor Vaughan Barrah have followed a similar route.

Elfyn Llwyd, Plaid Cymru's parliamentary leader, welcomed the new recruit. He said: "Allegiance to a party is a very powerful thing and leaving one's party is not something one can do without a great deal of soul-searching. That Councillor Brown and his colleagues have chosen this course of action is a reflection of the deep and widespread disillusionment with New Labour which is felt across Wales."

He said the latest boost to membership in Newport was part of a much larger growth over the last few months, especially among the ethnic minority community.