HERITAGE staff are seeking urgent talks after First Minister Vaughan Gething said that his government would not step in to stop the closure of the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.

Mr Gething explained on Monday that the Welsh government was prioritising the health service in Wales, so it would allow the city centre museum and gallery to be closed.

In response, the Prospect union’s Jane Lancastle said today: “The union has regular meetings with senior management at the museum to work through the consequences of the funding issues.

“We have written to Lesley Griffiths, cabinet secretary for culture and social justice, to seek a meeting to discuss the impacts of the Budget 2024-25 and we are awaiting a response.

“We continue to campaign for a properly funded heritage sector in Wales and work to further the social partnership with all bodies in our heritage sector.”

At a press conference covered in today’s Star, Mr Gething was asked about comments by Museum Wales chief executive Jane Richardson, who warned that the National Museum in Cardiff could close and at least 90 jobs could be lost following cuts.

Mr Gething said: “If the NHS really is our priority, you can’t have that as consequence-free for every other area of public life.

“We’ve set out that there would be reductions in some areas. The museum is just one of those. There are many others.”

Plaid Cymru’s Heledd Fychan said: “The irony is that while [Sir Keir] Starmer pleads that a UK Labour government will end the war on culture, their track record in Wales says the opposite.”