TODAY our campaign to stop the closure of Newport’s passport office goes to the very top of Welsh politics as First Minister Carwyn Jones gives his reasons as to why he supports our stand.

As we prepare to take our 22,000-name petition to Downing Street, Mr Jones has written a passionate plea for the office to remain open.

He says the closure will have a major impact on an already shaky Welsh economy.

He says there had been a lack of consultation between the UK Government and the people of Wales and writes of the Assembly received no advance warning of this announcement.

He said nobody should let this decision go without a fight and urges the government to change its mind and "keep open this important service for Wales."

Mr Jones can rest assured that we will not give up in our fight to save the passport office.

Research suggests that as well as 300 job losses at the office, the city centre itself could then expect to lose a further 200 as part of a knock-on effect.

We were also told last week that the passport office will operate in a watered down form with as few as 30 staff leading us to question why aren't all passport offices across the country facing the same level of cuts.

From day one we have never believed that the pain is not being shared across the country.

South Wales was seen as an easy target but we do not believe the Home Office expected the strength of feeling this decision has generated.

The consideration of he job losses here is simply irrelevant to the faceless Whitehall bureaucrats.

We are not naive enough to believe that, as part of a national spending review, the passport office wouldn’t be hit. By why only Wales?

Not one senior politician has been able to answer that question.

The jobs are not the only issue we are fighting on. We don’t believe that Wales should be the only country in Europe to not have its own passport office.

Casting aside the passport office in the way the Home Office has shows complete arrogance towards Wales, in our view.

We have not yet heard one good argument for this closure and that is why we will continue to fight hard on this issue.