Liverpool parts with its Friends

National Museums Liverpool (NML) has withdrawn the benefits for its Friends organisation and requested that it vacate its offices.

The director of NML, David Fleming, said the Friends of National Museums Liverpool (FNML) had failed to support the NML's aims, and that the committee was pursuing its own agenda against the wishes of its 1,700 members.

Fleming added that there had been difficulties in the museum's relationship with its Friends for several years, but the final straw came when FNML refused to offer its support to the development of the International Slavery Museum (ISM), which opened last year.

In a letter to Fleming, the chairman of the Friends, Andrew Pearce, said: "Members of the committee feared that political correctness might result in a brushing aside of the African contribution to the trade, while Liverpool's role in the abolition campaign might be downplayed. The committee had decided they would provide no support towards the International Slavery Museum."

In a letter replying to Pearce, Amy de Joia, the museum's executive director of development and communications, wrote: "We were deeply disappointed that the FNML committee decided against supporting the International Slavery Museum, which is a major strategic priority for the NML. The overt lack of support from FNML has, in our opinion, been inexcusable."

Pearce said suggestions that the FNML committee is unrepresentative were "nonsense". He added: "The committee was elected by its members at the annual general meeting last September. As chairman, I do what the majority of the committee wants and they do what the members want.

"It is a sad day because the museum will lose the ambassadorial role of its Friends. All of the members that we have been in contact with are extremely angry about this decision."

Pearce said he thought that FNML would have to be wound up, but said the committee had not yet come to a decision as to what will happen to the money it has raised, which is more than £250,000.

Meanwhile, the museum has begun its own Friends scheme, which it is running in-house.

Norah Dunbar, chairwoman of the British Association of Friends of Museums, said: "We are very disappointed, but this is an internal matter between the museum and its Friends."