Drama in Westminster as Gurkha debate boils over
By politics.co.uk staff
There was drama on the streets of Westminster today, as the UK Border Agency announced four out of five ‘right to remain’ Gurkha cases had been rejected.
The news prompted Joanna Lumley to issue a statement promising an important press conference on the news at 16:00 BST.
But the government appears to have sprung nervously into action, with Phil Woolas, immigration minister, quickly making his way onto BBC News to pre-empt the conference.
The interview was watched by Joanna Lunley moments before she was due to deliver her press conference. Mr Woolas insisted he was already committed to reconsider the rejection.
“We are reconsidering and we will be writing to the Gurkhas again very soon,” he said.
After that interview, it appears Mr Woolas and Ms Lumley bumped into each other at the BBC offices in Westminster.
Soon afterwards, a member of Ms Lumley’s campaign announced the press conference would be delayed while the two had an informal meeting.
In the bizarre joint statement which followed Mr Woolas appeared to be extraordinarily eager to appease Ms Lumley.
The actress told reporters the minister had promised her campaign would be able “to help in the formation of new guidelines”.
She also said the existing cases would be looked at “most sympathetically”.
The rejections resulted from existing rules about Gurkhas’ rights to stay in the UK, after the government revised its policy following a high court ruling.
The recently announced plans, however, were rejected by a Commons vote last week and today the UK Borders Agency has confirmed five out of five immigration cases were rejected despite the new rules.
Yesterday, Ms Lumley said she had total confidence that prime minister Gordon Brown would act to change the government’s standing on the veterans’ settlement rights.
The development follows comments from Martin Salter, Labour’s leading campaigner on the issue, to politics.co.uk, saying Gordon Brown would now make traction on the issue.
