Labour's failure to support Gurkhas 'shameful' says Leech

9.06.13am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 1st May 2009

Withington MP, John Leech, has today slammed Manchester's Labour MPs after all four of them failed to vote in support of offering equal settlement rights to all Gurkha soldiers who have fought for the British Army.

In a historic vote in the House of Commons yesterday, a Liberal Democrat motion calling for full settlement rights for all Gurkhas who have served in the British Army was won by 267 votes to 246. This represented a crushing blow for the Labour government who had just last week issued new guidelines on the Gurkhas' settlement rights based on them meeting certain criteria relating to length of service, bravery medals and medical conditions brought on by service in the British Army.

Yet despite the strength of public feeling in favour of the Gurkhas' cause, not one Labour Manchester MP backed the Lib Dem motion. One, Graham Stringer, MP for Manchester Blackley, even failed to vote in favour of equal settlement rights despite having signed a Commons motion to that effect just this week.

John Leech said:

"The way in which this Labour government has treated the Gurkhas is shameful. These are men who have laid down their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms that we take for granted today."

"Labour's Manchester MPs ought to be ashamed of themselves. Their party was only too quick to rush into war in Iraq, but it refuses to give loyal, brave soldiers the settlement rights that they deserve. I hope that this defeat in the Commons will be the wake up call that Gordon Brown needs on this issue, but I fear it will not be."

<ENDS>

Notes to editors

1. The vote on Gurkhas' settlement rights was part of an opposition day debate secured by Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg for 29th April 2009. For full details of the vote see http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2009-04-29&number=104&mpn=John_Leech&mpc=Manchester%2C_Withington

2. John Leech is also a signatory of Early Day Motion 1358 Settlement for Former Gurkha Soldiers: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=38513&SESSION=899