NICK Smith MP writes exclusively for the Argus about his decision to back Owen Smith:

It's been a gut wrenching year for a Labour Party loyalist like me.

I first joined the Party when I was 16 in my home town of Tredegar, brought up in a council house on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. My grandfather had been a miner who told tales of talking to Nye at the garden gate on the dram road.

Those days feel a long way away. My community has been ravaged by the loss of coal and steel. I want to reverse that decline, bring jobs and growth back to the community, but we need a Labour Government to do that.

This is why this last year has been so gut wrenching. Since Jeremy’s election, I have been watching the party split itself apart. Divisions between MPs, local parties and Labour voters who should all be on the same side.

My Labour values haven't changed since my youth, but our policies have evolved as the world around us changed. I've travelled the country from key seat to by election, always taking the temperature on the level of support for Labour.

This past year, voters have told me Jeremy is a good man, they like his values. But they also say he would not make a prime minister, because they know you need more than that. People have upbraided me at their garden gates in elections across the UK. Voters have come out of their front door saying “no thanks, not this time with your leader Mr Corbyn.”

Each time I've said that's ok, but I would be supporting our leader because he been elected by my party and I am a loyalist.

But after the losing Euro referendum campaign, which meant so much for South Wales, I knew that Jeremy's heart wasn't in it and my loyalty was wasted. Not putting your heart and soul into the most important question that our country has faced for 40 years isn't good enough. When Jeremy couldn’t keep his top team together, I had to speak out and join the calls for a new leadership election.

Owen and I were elected to Parliament together in 2010. He knew my patch and friends as he'd been the by-election candidate there in in 2006 and had done a good job reviving the Labour vote after we got a pasting in the 2005 General Election.

He's tireless and we need that work ethic. He's like the Duracell bunny. In the 2015 general election in Wales he was everywhere shouting the odds for Labour.

I've never seen Owen take a step backwards. You can argue with him mind - he and I and I have had some right barneys behind closed doors. But that's ok, because we then come out and take the battle to the Tories.

He's a fighter, a grafter and Labour to the soles of his feet. He's reflective, a team player and will stand up for our core seats as well as those we need to win on the M4 as we travel to Westminster. He’s what we need right now.

The Labour Party needs someone who stands for unity. Someone whose leadership can unite Labour MPs, Labour members and Labour voters again in a common purpose. That’s why I’m backing Owen.