Maverick AM John Marek has vowed to fight on after failing to be endorsed by his local Labour party in Wrexham.

The Welsh Assembly's deputy presiding officer faces a full reselection battle to be the party's candidate for the constituency after losing a vital vote on Tuesday night by 13 votes to 10.

Dr Marek: lost backing of his party branch

The controversial AM said he was disappointed but confident rank-and-file party members in the north Wales town would support him.

Speaking after the vote, Dr Marek said: "I'm of course disappointed.

"But on the other hand the stage now moves to the one-person-one-vote by the members of the Wrexham Labour Party and I'm confident they will support me."

Dr Marek, who has been MP and then AM for Wrexham for nearly 20 years, has a reputation for angering members of the Welsh Labour Party.

Last month, a disciplinary hearing was due to hear complaints from Labour councillors in Wrexham that he had brought the party into disrepute.

His support by the party's rank-and-file will be put to the test after five out of six local party branches voted on Tuesday evening not to re-endorse him as their candidate for the Welsh Asembly polls next May.

Seventeen affiliated union branches also voted and they opted by 9-to-8 in his favour.

Opponents

The result is that despite narrowly winning in the union affiliate section, he has comprehensively lost among party branches.

Every Labour party member in the constituency will have a vote in the reselection ballot which will begin in January.

The Wales Labour Party said it hopes that the outcome of the vote will be known by the party conference at the end of February.

Earlier this month, Dr Marek also lost the support of his local Labour party when only one of the seven branches clearly backed him.