Lindsay Whittle, Plaid Cymru AM for the South East region, has described the loss of 150 jobs at the Passport Office in Newport as a bitter blow for the city.
The UK Government announced on Monday that 150 jobs out of 300 will go at Newport’s Passport Office.
Speaking after he raised an Urgent Question in the Senedd, Mr Whittle challenged the First Minister on what action he is taking to mitigate the effects of the job losses on the people of Newport.
He said: “Such large numbers of jobs lost are a bitter blow for Newport and the surrounding areas. While the Tories and Lib Dems seem to think we should be grateful that more people haven’t lost their jobs, the new Labour Welsh government must now act to help those people who will be out of work and to help Newport.
“The new Labour Welsh Government should be proactive as the Scottish and Northern Irish governments are being in order to secure new funding from the UK Government in order to invest in our communities.
“It appears that the new Labour Welsh Government is last to the table here and the people of Wales have a right to ask why.”
During the debate in the Senedd, First Minister Carwyn Jones responded to Mr Whittle’s question about why he has yet to meet the UK Government.
He said: “We have not heard back from the Treasury yet about a meeting, but I anticipate that we will have a meeting soon; that much is true.
“I discussed the issue of the passport office with the Secretary of State on Friday and my concerns were made very clear. I had a further discussion with the Secretary of State on Monday on this issue.
“We have, not just in Government, but across parties in this Chamber, made our position very clear, as indeed have Newport City Council and politicians of all parties outside this Chamber. I am sure that we will join with the workers at the passport office in expressing great regret, and indeed anger, at the partial closure of the passport office and the failure of the UK Government to maintain a fully-fledged passport office in Wales.”
lindsay is both right and wrong here
first he is right to stick up for the Newport passport office which brings a lot of trade to the centre of Newport (when you need to what around for 5 hours for your passport would you jest sit there or go do some shopping?) as well as being a much used and needed service
second he is wrong to say "It appears that the new Labour Welsh Government is last to the table here" as I know for a fact that that labour am's and party member were there at the very begging protesting the close’er of the passport office. passport ocice.
Very difficult to disagree with the general comments made by Lindsay and certainly with the seniments he expresses in the Assembly on this issue, however, at what point does Lindsay think the last Assembly Plaid Cymru/Labour coalition failed in representing this issue which was clearly on the cards for the last year?.
His party and Labour were running the show before the recent election at which Lindsay was appointed, does he really believe that the Secretary of State For Wales ever listened to his parties argument or that of Labour on this issue, She is a Tory Lindsay.
I have to say that Mr Whittle is very quick to judge, and very wrong in doing so.
When the announcements of job losses were announced last year, Labour AMs and MP's were the first to approach the PCS trade union to offer their and support in the campaign, and they were the first to put opposition to the Coalition Government regarding the proposals.
It is only through joint political lobbying with Labour AMs, MP's and PCS that we have a slight improvement on the initial proposal. The Labour AM for Caerffili Jeff Cuthbert is a member of the PCS Assembly group and has been involved in the lobbying from the start.
Where was Mr Whittle, when as leader of the Plaid led Caerffili County Council when the job cuts were announced, the impact this will have on the constituents of Caerffili will be massive, as with the impact on the Welsh economy. There are dedicated civil servants from Caerffili County who work at the Newport Passport office, working hard to provide a first class public service – where was the opposition from CCBC to the proposals.
There has been form the start of the campaign to save the Newport Passport office a strong Labour AM, MP and councillor involvement, community groups (Newport against the cuts), together with Leanne Wood (Plaid AM) and local Newport councillors.
I would like to invite Mr Whittle to a public meeting being held on the Tuesday the 31st of May at 18.30 in the Kings hotel in Newport to show his support to save ALL the jobs at Newport Passport office.
It is wrong for Mr Whittle to be using this forum to score political points when there are people livelihoods at steak – and it is in fact incorrect of him to state this. Isn't this a time when all political parties should be working together to save these much needed quality jobs in an already struggling economy.
I submitted a response to this factually incorrect statement from Lindsay Whittle about 4 hours ago and am still waiting for it to appear even though it says there are 3 responses!!! I can but assume it hasn't appeared as it shows the flaws in Mr Whittles questions to the Assembly!!!
I stand corrected, it has appeard as if by magic.
Strange how things appear and then disappear in here?
Hi Sian,
Comments don't appear immediately as they are moderated. I'm not sure what happened with your original comment as that was approved shortly after you made it.
Try hitting refresh together with Ctrl to load a fresh version of the page.
Thanks for reading.
Lindsay Whittle seems to forget if he and his supporters had thier way thier way over Welsh independance there would be no jobs in the U.K. pasport service anywhere in Wales sand nno jobf for ENglish speakers anywhere in a WELSH Civil Service
Gareth Williams