AMBULANCE workers at three trade unions have voted to go on strike over pay, prompting a blame game between the Welsh Government and its Senedd opposition.

The Welsh Ambulance Service was among the British trusts at which staff voted to hold industrial action, and there is now the prospect of strikes before Christmas.

In Wales, the Welsh Government said the outcome was regrettable but ministers could understand union member's feelings.

"We recognise why so many ambulance workers voted the way they did and the anger and disappointment many public sector workers are feeling at the moment," a spokesperson for the Welsh Government said.

The fault for the current situation, they added, was down to the budgets allocated to Wales by the UK Government.

"We believe our emergency services should be fairly rewarded for their important work but our current financial settlement falls far short of what is needed to meet the very significant challenges faced by our public services and workers across Wales," the Welsh Government spokesperson said.

The Welsh Conservatives said it was "disappointing to see some unions vote to strike meaning we will see ambulance service staff stop working during the winter".

Shadow health minister Russell George challenged the Welsh Government's claims that it was Westminster-set budgets that were to blame for the result of the strike ballot in Wales.

"Let there be no doubt that, in Wales, it was the pay offer of the Labour government in Cardiff Bay that was rejected," he said.

"Anybody, including unions, that seek to lay the blame at the door of someone else is doing the public and striking workers an injustice.

"Nurses have already voted to strike in all but one health board in Wales and it is astonishing the Labour health minister has still not met with them to negotiate – hopefully the case won’t be the same for ambulance workers.

"Patients and staff need action from the Labour government to bring this situation to a swift and fair resolution and I urge them get around the negotiating table now."

Similarly, the Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds, who holds her party's one Senedd seat, said: "As industrial action goes, this is possibly the most alarming in terms of the potential risk to life but who can blame our hard-pressed ambulance staff given the conditions they face and their reasonable pay demands?

"The Welsh Labour government must negotiate with the unions in order to reach a fair compromise and ensure life-saving services operate at full capacity during the winter."

The Welsh Government spokesperson, meanwhile, said talks with unions would continue.

They said: "We value social partnership and we continue to meet the trade unions to discuss a range of issues affecting the workforce."