THE first minister of Wales Carwyn Jones looks set to visit the Newport passport office to meet workers who could be facing redundancy.

If the meeting goes ahead he will be the only senior politician to have met employees at the branch since the announcement of the closure.

Like the Argus, Mr Jones has previously expressed his opposition to the plan which could leave up to 300 people out of work in an area badly hit by the economic crisis and Wales without its own passport office.

More than 24,000 of our readers signed our petition calling for the closure to be abandoned.

A spokesman for the Welsh Assembly Government confirmed that he “intends to fulfil” an invitation from the Public and Commercial Services union to speak to employees.

It is understood that the meeting is being arranged, and no date is yet set.

Despite the closure plan being announced in October neither immigration minister Damian Green, who is responsible for the Identity and Passport Service, nor Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan have yet made the trip to Newport to talk to workers.

Mrs Gillan was herself invited by Newport East AM John Griffiths to the office but wrote back to say it would “not be proper” to meet staff publicly.

Instead she offered him and PCS a meeting in London with Mr Green - which has now been postponed until January.

Mr Griffiths is now also writing to the immigration minister, who he said would be in a more “informed position if he had come to the passport office and saw for himself first hand the quality of the service”.

A spokesman for Cheryl Gillan’s Wales Office and the Home Office said both ministers have met local politicians, including MPs and the leader of the council.

The Identity and Passport Service said it would be happy to consider any request from the minister to visit its office.