Published: Thursday, 7th May, 2009 6:00am

Martin Salter's Westminster Diary, May 7, 2009

by Martin Salter MP

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IT'S BEEN a fairly hectic period, notwithstanding the welcome May Bank Holiday weekend which saw my beloved Reading Royals fail to take advantage of a wonderful opportunity to return to the Premiership without suffering the vagaries of the play-offs.

Last Monday I raised on the floor of the House the issue of Labour's expansion of nursery provision in Reading and Berkshire, on Tuesday I was at Home Affairs Committee hearing powerful evidence from the mother of murdered London teenager Stephen Lawrence, before chairing a meeting of environmental organisations concerned about water quality in Britain.

The evening was spent collecting signatures for my Early Day Motion criticising the Government's new guidelines for the settlement of former Gurkhas. The motion, which received unanimous support from the Select Committee, described the guidelines as "unnecessarily restrictive, morally wrong, and offensive to those dedicated Gurkha soldiers who are denied the opportunity to serve for the 20 year minimum period". It also called upon the Government to "withdraw these guidelines and bring forward a new and more equitable ruling".

By Wednesday morning, with other colleagues, we were sending emails to 300 Labour MPs urging them to withhold support from the Government in the division lobbies later that afternoon unless promised a policy rethink. Pressure mounted during the day, not least because the Speaker gave me the opportunity to raise the Gurkha's plight at Prime Minister's Question Time. By 2pm the Government's position was shifting and, after intense negotiations, we got a commitment to review the policy (yet again!) before July's summer recess and to promise that there will be no deportations of Gurkhas currently in Britain fighting their cases. At 3pm I gave the good news to several hundred Gurkhas outside Parliament. None of this stopped the Government losing the symbolic vote later that afternoon, but it is clear we are now well on the way to getting justice for Gurkhas at last.

The Home Affairs Committee this week returned to the Gurkha issue and it was my job to demolish some of the ridiculous figures put about regarding the cost to the taxpayer, and the likely number of Gurkhas and their dependants who could choose to settle in Britain.

Most of the Gurkhas I know work hard, pay taxes, and make a valuable contribution to our economy. This is over and above the debt we already owe them for risking their lives for our country.