POLITICIANS in Newport slammed trade unions for suggesting there is not enough of an ethnic mix in the city for civil service jobs to move here.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) is moving its headquarters to Gwent over the next five years, bringing hundreds of jobs to the city.

But union officials are unsure about the move, saying the ethnic mix of the ONS would suffer because Newport is not as racially diverse as London.

Paul Flynn, MP for Newport West, called the objection "absurd". He said: "The unions appear to have disregarded the substantial number of potential ethnic minority workers in Newport and surrounding areas.

"Achieving a proper ethnic mix is an important and worthy aim, but it is absurd to object on these grounds when there are other enormous advantages in relocating to Newport."

Miqdad Al-Nuaimi, councillor for Stow Hill, agreed the fears were unfounded.

He said: "I would reject the assertion that Newport is not racially mixed - it is one of the most mixed places in South Wales.

"Plus, the ethnic mix should not be a factor - civil servant jobs should come here for other reasons."

Trevor Roberts, president of the Newport Chamber of Commerce, said: "South Wales has a fully integrated society. They should have no fears about coming here."

The unions have said it will be mostly white people from Newport who replace London staff.

A spokesman for the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said: "It would be a real challenge for the ONS to maintain its current levels of racial diversity if it moved down to Newport."

Rose Willis, negotiations officer with the union Prospect, said: "We want to be sure that everything is being properly planned if we are going to lose 600 jobs.

"The ONS is very ethnically diverse and it will be difficult for them to recreate that in Newport."

The Office for National Statistics has said it is trying to recruit more ethnic minority staff to all of its sites, and a spokesman added: "There ought to be no harmful effect on the ethnic make-up of the workforce."