Business in Reading - Equal treatment for Gurkhas

GURKHA CAMPAIGN TO LOBBY LABOUR IN MANCHESTER

Reading West MP Martin Salter has organised for Labour MPs who have signed up to become members of the newly formed All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gurkha Rights, to meet a delegation of Gurkhas on Tuesday (23rd September) outside Labour Party Conference in Manchester.

The Gurkhas have been campaigning for equal treatment with other Commonwealth soldiers who are entitled to settle in the UK at the end of their period of service. Currently only Gurkhas discharged from the British Army after 1997 are entitled to settlement rights. Gurkhas also receive substantially less in wages and pensions than soldiers in other British regiments despite being deployed in some of the most dangerous conflicts in the world on behalf of Britain.

The delegation will comprise Gurkhas from Reading and the Thames Valley and elsewhere in the country and will include the Victoria Cross holder Gurkha Ram Bahadur Limbu. MPs who have agreed to meet and show solidarity with the Gurkhas include Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee Keith Vaz and Swindon South MP Anne Snelgrove and others.

Martin Salter said:

“Whilst I acknowledge that the Government has improved the situation for those Gurkhas discharged after 1997 I believe that it is fundamentally wrong to have two classes of soldiers serving in the British Army. The Gurkhas are known as ‘the bravest of the brave’ and it is right and proper that we acknowledge the tremendous debt that we owe them for putting themselves in harms way on our behalf. I am pledged to do all I can to raise the issue of equal rights for all Gurkhas both within the Labour Party and in the House of Commons when Parliament returns.”