A DEPUTY council leader has resigned after using a racist pejorative in a council debate, it emerged yesterday.

In a debate on cross-border health services between England and Wales, Powys independent councillor Myfanwy Alexander said that Welsh local authorities were “treated like niggers over the border.”

Initially refusing to resign, Ms Alexander claimed she had deployed the phrase to “fight prejudice and unequal treatment,” and said she was quoting from Maya Angelou’s memoir I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.

But the council is run by a group of independents who do not have an overall majority — so after opposition chiefs threatened a vote of no confidence, she was compelled to step down.

In a letter, Ms Alexander wrote: “My resignation has not been tendered without pressure and I would have expected to encounter more loyalty.

“It is, alas, a situation which has to be resolved and you are of the opinion that I should resign.”