Government defeat on Gurkhas
30 April 2009
Speaking after the Government defeat in the House of Commons yesterday on the Gurkhas Edward Garnier, MP for Harborough, Oadby & Wigston and the Shadow Minister for Justice issued the following statement today:
"I know there is a great demand for a detailed response on the question of the rights of Gurkhas who left the service before 1997 to settle in this country. We Conservatives believe that the Government's response to a High Court decision disallowing their previous policy is unfair and ungenerous. The Government has set a new range of restrictive criteria for settlement, which would deny the vast majority of Gurkhas any chance of coming to the UK.
"We want to be fair to the Gurkhas. We have already said that we would introduce a limit on visas allowed under the Points- Based System, to ensure that those who come here benefit British society. We believe that former Gurkhas, and other foreign-born ex-service personnel, have already contributed to our society, and have therefore earned the right to come here.
"A Conservative Government would allow pre-1997 Gurkhas the right to settle in the UK. To enable this to happen within the terms of our proposed immigration policy, we would create a new tier within the Points-Based System, which each year would allow a specified number of visas for non-UK ex-servicemen. We will conduct research to see how much demand there is for such visas.
"This policy would be fair to our veterans, particularly the Gurkhas, consistent with our proposals for a controlled immigration policy, and affordable within the welfare budget. The vast majority of those who have already come here from Nepal have proved exemplary workers and members of society, and we are sure that new arrivals of working age would prove the same.
"Yesterday we voted with the Liberal Democrats and several Labour MPs against the Government's position on this issue. For the first time since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, his Government was defeated in a Commons vote. David Cameron described this as 'a historic day when Parliament took the right decision. Gordon Brown has misjudged the mood of the public about the Gurkhas. The Government has been in power for a long time and has lost touch with public opinion'.
"The Government was forced to accept that public and political opinion is against them and announced that they would review their policies towards the Gurkhas. Whilst we welcomed this commitment when it was announced in the Chamber, our Immigration Spokesman, Damian Green, also made it clear that it would be unacceptable for the Government to continue to refuse right of residency for all Gurkha soldiers. He stated that 'The underlying reason why the Government is having to behave in such an unfair and ungenerous way to this group of people is that its overall immigration policy has been out of control for so many years.'
I can assure you that we will continue to ask questions and put pressure on the Government to ensure justice for former Gurkha soldiers."
