Kent Lib Dems ask County Council to join in support of Gurkhas

3.15.00pm GMT Sat 29th Mar 2008

Nepalese soldiers hand back their Long Service and Good Conduct medals to Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg in Westminster

Trudy Dean, Leader of the Lib Dems on Kent County Council will ask the Conservative and Labour groups to join the Lib Dems in support of the Gurkhas.

Recently fifty of the Nepalese soldiers handed back their Long Service and Good Conduct medals to Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg in Westminster. The Gurkhas and their supporters were protesting at the difference in treatment of Gurkhas with other British soldiers.

Gurkhas who retired after 1997 can automatically stay in the UK, but those who retired earlier must apply, and many have been refused and face deportation.

Many of those Gurkhas who have applied to stay are based in and around the Ashford area. Chris Took, Ashford Liberal Democrat's Parliamentary spokesman, has likened the treatment Gurkhas as casting "a shadow of shame over Britain."

A bill has been launched in the House of Lords to try to change the law regarding the right for all Gurkhas to remain in the UK. Protesters are also calling for pension rules to be reformed in a similar way.

The Liberal Democrats on Kent County Council, including Ashford Liberal Democrat County Councillor George Koowaree, will ask the leader of the Conservative Group and the leader of the Labour Group to join them in supporting this bill at a meeting of KCC on 3rd April.