Historic Victory for Lib Dem Gurkhas' Commons Motion

11.29.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 29th Apr 2009

Brown Loses Again - to Gurkhas

The historic victory for our motion in the House of Commons was a victory for justice.

It was a day when we could all feel great pride in being Liberal Democrats. It was also a great day for Nick Clegg who said that, "This is an historic victory for the Gurkhas who have served our country so bravely.

"This Government has now lost its moral authority. From the first moment I challenged Gordon Brown on this over a year ago, he didn't understand that there was a simple moral principle at stake.

"People who are willing to die for our country, should be allowed to live in our country.

"The Government must listen to Parliament and scrap these shameful rules immediately and grant justice without conditions to all retired Gurkhas."

There is a great analysis of the vote on the Politics.co.uk website and you can see the BBC website report here. There is more information about the campaign on the party website. Many people were angry about the way in which Gordon Brown and his Immigration Minister Phil Woolas had failed to listen to public demands for fair treatment for the Gurkhas.

If you want to make a donation to help us achieve the small 5% swing that we need to defeat Phil Woolas in Oldham East and Saddleworth at the next General Election, you can donate to the party here: https://secure.libdems.org.uk/donate?ref=oes.

No doubt you will be doing all that you can to help us in the crucial European elections (and local elections in much of England) on June 4th. Over 30 million Liberal Democrat leaflets are currently being printed for the European election campaign. Thousands of our council candidates are producing leaflets for their area. Nick Clegg is making 44 different campaign visits across Britain as part of his current campaign tour.