Brown meets Lumley over Gurkhas
By politics.co.uk staff
The prime minister met with Gurkha campaigner Joanna Lunley this afternoon to discuss her campaign.
“He’s going to come up with a solution by the end of this month,” Ms Lumley said.
“I trust him, I rely on him, and I know he has now taken this matter into his own hands. Today is a very good day.”
Gordon Brown lost his first ever Commons debate on the issue of Gurkha settlement last week.
In a warm assessment of the prime minister, Ms Lumley, former star of sit-com Absolutely Fabulous, said Mr Brown was a man of integrity.
Ms Lumley, whose father fought with the Gurkhas, wants all of them to be given the right to settle in the UK.
The current struggle centres on the 36,000 Gurkhas who have no right of residence in the UK because they left the brigade before 1997.
Asked whether he would respect the view of parliament during prime minister’s questions today, Mr Brown said the government would “listen to the voice of the House”.
The Liberal Democrats, whose leader Nick Clegg helped spearhead the campaign, reacted suspiciously to today’s announcement.
The party’s home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: “My suspicions rise when the prime minister says reassuring things in private, but refuses to state unequivocally in prime minister’s questions that he will respect the principle that if you are good enough to fight and die for this country, you are good enough to live here.”
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