With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a statement on new settlement rights for former Gurkhas and their families.

As the House knows, all Gurkhas who retired after July 1997, when the Brigade was relocated to the UK from Hong Kong, are already eligible to settle here under current immigration rules. Since 2004, more than 6,000 Gurkhas and their families have done so.

On 29 April, hon. Members of all parties made clear their view that the Government should reconsider plans to increase by 10,000 the number of Gurkhas and family members who could come to the UK to live. As my hon. Friend the Minister for Borders and Immigration set out in his statement to the House that evening, we undertook to respect the will of the House and introduce revised proposals. I am most grateful to my hon. Friend for the work that he has led to deliver that commitment. I am also grateful to the members of the Home Affairs Committee and the Gurkhas' representatives, who have helped us to establish the basis for the proposals.

Our policy will be put into effect through guidance, which we will publish shortly, having first shared it in advance with the Select Committee and Gurkha representatives to seek their views.

Our new guidance will reflect the will of the House, while remaining affordable and consistent with our broader immigration policy. All former Gurkhas who retired before 1997 and who have served more than four years will now be eligible to apply for settlement in the UK.

Gurkha representatives have indicated that it will take time for former Gurkhas and their families to make their applications. I welcome the willingness of the representatives to set up a form of resettlement board to assist the process of their integration into British life.

On the basis of the figure of 10,000 to 15,000 main applicants that Gurkha representatives have suggested, I expect to be able to welcome them and their families over the course of the next two years. I am making resources available in the UK Border Agency to do that, and I am making it clear that there should be no time limit on those applications. The Select Committee has recommended that former Gurkhas should be entitled to bring with them their spouses and dependent children under the age of 18. I am pleased to accept that recommendation.

The 1,400 or so outstanding applications for settlement that are now being considered by the UK Border Agency will be processed on the basis of the policy I am announcing today. I have instructed the UK Border Agency to process all those cases, as a matter of urgency, by 11 June, but I expect to complete the work earlier.

The guidance recognises the unique nature of the service given to the UK by the Brigade of Gurkhas. It is offered to them on an exceptional basis.

I hope that the House will understand the importance of maintaining the distinction, upheld by the High Court, between Gurkhas who served before and after 1997. That is why I welcome the agreement of all parties to our discussions that there is no direct read-across between settlement and pension rights. As the Chairman of the Select Committee wrote in his letter to the Prime Minister on Tuesday,

"the question of equalising Gurkha pensions should not and need not be conflated with the debate about settlement".

On the basis of the measures I have set out today, I am proud now to be able to offer this country's welcome to all who have served in the Brigade of Gurkhas and who wish to apply to settle here. I am sure that all who come here will make the most of the opportunities of living and working in the UK.

I am delighted that we have now been able to agree—across Government, across the House and with the Gurkhas' representatives—new settlement rights, which all those who have served us so well so highly deserve. I commend the statement to the House.

This has been a great victory for a well run campaign, which publicly embarrassed Ministers and reminded us all of the role that the Gurkhas have played in helping to defend this country over the centuries. It is also a timely reminder of what the House can achieve when it stands up to the Executive and expresses its will about what should happen. We do not do that often enough.

First and foremost, this case was about basic decency. Many people from around the world have come to live in this country in the past decade. There was never a justification for denying that right to a group of people who have long lived in the nation's affections, and who have risked, and often given, their lives for its protection.

We have always been clear that those who risk their lives for this country should have the right to come and live in our country. It is just a shame that the Government had to be dragged kicking and screaming through the courts, at great cost to the taxpayer, then through the crowds of Gurkhas outside this place, before they finally accepted the inevitable. [Interruption.] The statement is also a tribute to the determined and effective campaign by Joanna Lumley to persuade Ministers to change their minds.

Does the Home Secretary now finally accept that it was a massive mistake not to listen when we told her to accept the court ruling and not fight it? [Interruption.] Can she provide the House with more detail about costs? A few weeks ago, the Prime Minister was putting forward almost doomsday financial forecasts about the cost to the British taxpayer of allowing the Gurkhas to settle here. [Interruption.]

Order. Please allow the hon. Gentleman to be heard. This is important.

A few weeks ago, the Prime Minister presented almost doomsday financial forecasts about the cost to the British taxpayer of allowing the Gurkhas to settle here. Will the Home Secretary now confirm that those figures were wrong? What is her current forecast? What impact will today's announcement have on former members of the armed forces who come from other Commonwealth countries or, indeed, non-Commonwealth countries? What rights does she intend to offer them in future?

Let me give a clear commitment today to the Gurkhas and all those who have taken part in the campaign: you have won a great victory over this Government, but you have nothing to fear from a change of Government. If there is a Conservative Government after the next election, we will honour the agreement and ensure that the Gurkhas who want to come here are treated as honoured veterans of our armed forces, not as an unwelcome addition to the pressures on our immigration system.

Well, I agree with the hon. Gentleman that there has been an effective campaign on the issue. I also agree that it is right for the Government to respect the will of the House, and that is what we are doing in bringing forward today's policy proposals.

I find it slightly more difficult to agree with the hon. Gentleman on his more party political points, not least because the policy that we are announcing today builds on our record as the first Government to provide settlement rights for the Gurkhas—something that was patently not done under the previous Conservative Government.

The hon. Gentleman talked about the court ruling. Let me make it clear to him that we did fulfil—and are fulfilling in today's policy—the court ruling from last year, which upheld the distinction between those Gurkhas who were discharged pre-1997 and those discharged post-1997. The policy that we are announcing today is in line with that court ruling, as has been everything we have done since.

The hon. Gentleman asked me about costs. We have been assisted on that by the work of the Select Committee on Home Affairs, alongside officials from across government and Gurkha representatives, on what they believe the actual numbers likely to want to apply will be. We accept the Committee's suggestion that the costs are more likely to be nearer £300 million to £400 million a year.

As for the hon. Gentleman's point about Commonwealth soldiers, as happened in the debate he appears to be suggesting a radical change with respect to their entitlement to come to this country, which would have significant costs across government. It is for the hon. Gentleman to say how he would implement that and how those costs would be dealt with. Although the scheme for Gurkhas is exceptional, I am confident that their settlement rights now correlate with those of Commonwealth soldiers. On that basis, I think that we are today bringing forward a fair policy.

In a month that has been appalling for the House of Commons and made many of us feel almost ashamed to be here, I want to say unequivocally that I am proud to be a Member of the House of Commons today. This has been a rare good day for Parliament. I invite the Home Secretary to pay tribute to the work of the all-party group on Gurkha rights, and in particular Bob Russell and the long-time Gurkha campaigner, Miss Widdecombe. Today is an example of Members of Parliament from across the House working with a brilliant and inspirational campaign out there in the country that touched the very core of the British sense of fair play and doing the right thing by people who are prepared to risk their lives for our country. I thank the Home Secretary and the Government for belatedly seeing the light.

I am certainly willing to pay tribute both to my hon. Friend, who has worked hard to raise the issue of Gurkha settlement both with me and the Government, and in the House, and to the all-party group on Gurkha rights for its work, and in particular Bob Russell and Miss Widdecombe, as he said. The detailed work carried out by those representatives and by the Home Affairs Committee on reaching a common view on the likely numbers involved in settlement—and, therefore, the likely costs—has also been important in enabling us to move to today's policy announcement. I thank my hon. Friend and members of the Committee for facilitating that work.

I am grateful to the Home Secretary for advance sight of her statement, which I welcome enormously. The Prime Minister and the Minister have finally listened to the will of the House and the will of the British public, which is devoutly to be wished for. The campaign has run for many years. Six years ago, the Gurkhas attended our conference in Harrogate. We have had two wars since the campaign began. It is only through the perseverance of that campaign and the continued pressing of the Government by hon. Members and those outside this place that the Gurkhas finally have justice.

Does the Home Secretary not realise that dither and delay on that scale only emphasises the gracelessness of the whole process and of the Government's decision? Given the simplicity of the principle involved—that the people who fight and die for this country should have the right to live in this country—surely she should reflect on whether the Government's moral arteries have been somewhat furred in the Government's failure to grapple with the issue. Why did it take so long to recognise the public backing for that fundamental principle and the important claim that the Gurkhas have on the hearts of the British people?

I am slightly disappointed that the hon. Gentleman continues to conflate the situation of those Gurkhas who have been discharged post-1997, when it was this Government who provided for the settlement of those Gurkhas in 2004. We have been pleased to welcome 6,000 Gurkhas, plus their families, as part of that policy change since then. The principle is different, as the court recognised, for the exceptional scheme that we are now putting in place for those discharged pre-1997. The luxury of opposition is to be able to talk about the simplicity of principle. The responsibility of government is to take decisions that do the right thing in terms of our responsibilities to the country, the taxpayer and our immigration policy. That is what I believe we have done today.

I welcome my right hon. Friend's statement for two reasons. First, it recognises the unique debt of honour that this country owes the Gurkhas. Secondly, it recognises the unique status that that confers on them. Well done.

I agree with my right hon. Friend. Throughout the arguments about how we put the policy into operation, I hope and I believe that there has never been any doubt from the Government or any hon. Member about our commitment and gratitude to the Gurkhas for the role that they have played in serving this country. Their unique place has enabled us to bring forward the exceptional scheme that we are announcing today.

I say unreservedly that this is a fantastic day for hon. Members in all parts of the Chamber who have campaigned on this issue. I pay tribute to the Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee in particular, whose calm presence throughout has been welcomed in all parts of the House. One lesson for the Government may be that they have taken what was a good record on the Gurkhas—a record on which they should have been congratulated—and managed to throw it in the gutter in the course of their prevarication. We have had the invidious sight of the Minister for Borders and Immigration chasing around after Joanna Lumley—well, he can be forgiven for that; it was when he caught up with her that the damage was done; in future, perhaps he should chase after someone only if he has a good chat-up line.

As for the Government, let me congratulate them on finally doing the right thing. This is a great day for the House. In the midst of all the sleaze inquiries and everything else, this is one moment when MPs here can hold their heads up and say, "This is what we should've been doing every day of the week."

The right hon. Gentleman is being slightly churlish about my ministerial colleagues, who have worked hard to get us to today's position. The Government's record on supporting the Gurkhas stands in contrast to that of the previous Government, as I have outlined. I am proud of what we have done, and I think that we are building on that record today.

I thank the Home Secretary for an excellent statement. I pay tribute to her, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Borders and Immigration for what they have done, especially over the past few days. Mr. Duncan Smith is absolutely right: this is a good day for Parliament, because Opposition parties were also part of the process, in informing the Government of what was happening. The seminar on Tuesday, at which people could sit down privately and work things out, was possible only because the Minister for Borders and Immigration invited us.

I have one final recommendation. I do not know what the Home Secretary's travel plans are, but may I suggest that she go to Kathmandu, along with my hon. Friend Martin Salter—I do not know whether Joanna Lumley will be there—when those visas are issued to see the joy on the faces of those to whom she has given justice today and thank Joanna Lumley for the wonderful work that she has done?

I certainly believe that, as my right hon. Friend has said, the work facilitated by the Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday, with the input of officials across Government, Gurkha representatives and members of the Committee, has been very important in providing us with the basis for the proposals, on which it has been possible to move forward today, confident that we can fulfil our duty to the Gurkhas in line with our responsibility to taxpayers and our broader immigration policy. I thank him for his leadership in bringing that forward.

I am always slightly wary of accepting invitations to travel anywhere with my hon. Friend the Member for Reading, West, great though he has been in this campaign.

Why?

I am getting myself into trouble, so I shall leave it there.

This is, indeed, a very good day for the House and for the Brigade of Gurkhas. I recall working with the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green on this issue five or six years ago, when I spoke for my party on defence and he had the same responsibilities for the Conservative party. The Home Secretary will realise that Gurkhas have continued to fight and to die for this country during that period. Will she consider whether the dependants and families of those who served and were killed or died from old age, including a Victoria cross recipient just, I think, two weeks ago, should also be entitled to this welcome change? This is a very good day, not least because it is my birthday; it is good day for the Gurkhas, and the Home Secretary could make it even better by reconsidering those cases.

Happy birthday to the hon. Gentleman; I am always keen to please. He makes an important point about the dependants and widows of Gurkhas. I hope that he will look carefully at the guidance that we are proposing, which makes it clear that the ability to settle should be open, within the policy, to those who were widowed when their Gurkha husbands were killed in active service. It also includes the discretion to take into consideration exceptional circumstances in respect of other widows and dependants.

The Home Secretary has made a very welcome statement, but she has also said explicitly that this case is unique and exceptional. May I press her on the legal certainties of that uniqueness and exceptionality, given that many people in my constituency and elsewhere have relatives in other parts of the Commonwealth who may feel that they are not being treated equally?

Certainly, since 1980, when the rules changed, people from the Commonwealth who served with the British Army have been entitled to settlement in a way that those who served with the Gurkhas were not entitled at that time. Today, we are effectively giving the pre-1997 Gurkhas an entitlement that they did not have, which is roughly equivalent to one that Commonwealth soldiers have had, after four years' active service, to apply for settlement in the UK within two years. We believe that there is legal justification for the exceptional basis of the scheme that we are introducing, and that view was shared by the Home Affairs Committee in its seminar on Tuesday.

I warmly applaud the Government's decision, which is good news indeed. Most of my constituents will be very happy about it, except for the members of the British National party who have put out a leaflet saying that all Gurkhas should go home, which is utterly disgraceful.

Will the Home Secretary clarify one point from her statement? She said that this policy applies to all former Gurkhas who retired before 1997. May I assume that she is referring to post-1947 Gurkhas—in other words, those who served with the British Army and not the Indian army?

Yes, I confirm that we are talking about Gurkhas from post-1948, when the Brigade of Gurkhas became part of the British Army, rather than pre-1948 when it was, as the hon. Gentleman rightly says, part of the Indian army.

I very much welcome today's statement; the Government have without doubt made the right decision. However, is my right hon. Friend concerned, as I am, about all the other regiments, not least my grandfather's regiment, the Bengal Engineers, and those who fought in Malaysia, Singapore and Kenya, which never had a Joanna Lumley campaigning for them? The Government have made the right decision today, but, inevitably, there will be inconsistencies for others who have also given blood for king, queen and country over the years.

I believe it is right that we have had the policy, which I have just outlined, for Commonwealth soldiers who served with the British army. For a long time that has meant that those who served for four years and applied within two years of the end of their service were able to get settlement in the UK, but that was not the situation for pre-1997 Gurkhas.

It is indeed a good day for the House and for Gurkhas. The 120 Gurkhas who serve in the Mandalay company based at Derring Lines in Brecon will also be very pleased about this announcement, although their position was already safeguarded. Will the Secretary of State take on board the comments of my hon. Friend Mr. Keetch about extending the policy to the dependants of Gurkhas who have died but who would have qualified if they were still alive?

I hope that I answered that when I responded to the hon. Member for Hereford's question, when I made it clear that the policy applies to widows whose husbands were killed in active service.

As others have said, this policy will be welcomed right across the country and by those who served with Gurkha regiments. Have there been any discussions with the authorities in Nepal in recent weeks about the impact on the future of that nation of losing so many good people who might have been its lifeblood? I am sure that this policy will have some economic impact on that nation.

I know that the Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, my right hon. Friend Keith Vaz, gave the Government of Nepal the opportunity to make any case that they wanted to make in Tuesday's discussion. They have not expressed concern about the change of policy, but it will remain this Government's position to provide development aid where appropriate, including to Nepal. That is an important part of our international responsibilities. Also, there will continue to be a growing element of remittances back to Nepal, which may well benefit that country.

May I join others in warmly welcoming the Home Secretary's statement, and pay tribute to everyone inside and outside the House who has been involved in the campaign? Will she assure the House that this announcement will not in any way affect the future of Gurkha regiments in the British Army?

The Gurkhas play a very important part in the British Army and I am confident that they will continue to play that important role.

This is indeed an excellent statement, but I remind my right hon. Friend that an enormous amount of distress was caused by the seeming ambivalence of the Government to a fighting force, the Gurkhas, which has given more, on more occasions, to the British armed forces than many whom we call friends. The statement is welcome, but will she reassure the House that the process that the Gurkhas and their families will enter into will not only be speedy, but ensure that they are treated with respect and dignity?

I assure my hon. Friend that there has never been any such ambivalence from this Government or from the people of this country about the contribution that the Gurkhas have made to supporting this country's interests. The Government have a responsibility to find the right way to do the right thing, and that is what we have worked to achieve, alongside Gurkha representatives and across the Government. That is what I believe we have achieved today, and yes, I can give her a commitment that we have in place the resources to process the number of applications that Gurkha representatives believe will come forward. With the assistance that I hope the Gurkha representatives will provide—through the resettlement board that they have proposed, for example—I believe that those people will be able to arrive here, become integrated and play a full part in the life of this country. I am sure that that will be the case.

Of all the conflicts the Gurkhas had to fight, it is perhaps ironic that their longest battle was their fight to live in the country that they were willing to die for. Nevertheless, will the Home Secretary accept the gratitude of the many constituents of Montgomeryshire who have fully supported Joanna Lumley, the campaigners and the Gurkhas' right to achieve that goal? The Home Secretary has listened, and she has acted. In so doing, she has shown her Department and Parliament at their best.

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that. I, too, give credit to Joanna Lumley. I know that the Minister for Borders and Immigration was able to meet her again yesterday to talk through our proposals. She has played a very important role, and I am pleased that Ministers across the Government have been willing to listen to her and to other campaigners.

As secretary of the all-party group on Gurkhas, may I, on behalf of the 1,000 Gurkhas living in Swindon, thank the cross-departmental team that came up with this solution? Tomorrow, by sheer chance, I have a meeting with some of those Gurkhas. They will be asking me when the practical information will be published so that they and the Gurkhas who are not in this country can get on with their visa applications. Will my right hon. Friend give me an assurance that that information will be published quickly?

This is most significant for those Gurkhas who are in Nepal. They will form the vast majority of those who will benefit from the announcement. The Ministry of Defence will ensure, through its contacts and its knowledge of where those Gurkhas are, that that information is disseminated to them as quickly as possible.

I welcome the Government's change of position over the past few weeks—and, indeed, that of the Conservative party over a rather longer time. What lessons do the Home Secretary and her Department feel they have learned from what has happened in recent weeks? Would she be willing to apply any lessons that she can think of to another situation in which the spirit of a court judgment needs to be complied with? A similar situation has arisen twice in respect of the highly skilled migrant programme, which is closely analogous with the Gurkhas' situation in terms of compliance with the spirit of that for which the court has asked.

I have learned the lesson that, even when we comply with court rulings, that does not always satisfy campaigns. I have learned that we therefore need to be able to work across Government to ensure that we do the right thing. I think I have probably also learned the lesson that it is easier for those in opposition than it is for those in government to deliver change.

I was delighted to have been the Minister to announce the new terms and conditions for the Gurkhas, particularly the pensions, which are now the same as for the rest of the British Army. However, although a Gurkha's pension provides a reasonably good income in Nepal, that would not be the case for a Gurkha living in this country. Obviously, many of the Gurkhas and their families who come to this country will work, but some will be unable to do so or will have reached retirement age. Will my right hon. Friend tell me whether those who are not working will be able to get the same benefits as the rest of the UK population in order to ensure that they have a decent income?

Yes, I can give my hon. Friend the commitment that those Gurkhas who are coming to this country will be coming here to settle and they will therefore have the same entitlement to benefits as anybody in this country, including an entitlement to pension credit, in order to ensure that they have a reasonable level of income if they have retired. He is right to say that, notwithstanding the significant 50 per cent. increase in the Gurkha pension scheme over the past few years for those who were discharged from the Gurkhas pre-1997, there might still be some who will need to claim benefits when they arrive in this country, and that will be part of their entitlement.

On behalf of the Scottish National party and Plaid Cymru, I welcome the surrender of the Government in the face of the Gurkha-Lumley onslaught, as do many others inside and outside the House. The Government have eventually done the right thing, and they must be congratulated on it, but I wonder whether the Home Secretary regrets not doing this earlier.

No, I am proud of the Government's record of supporting the Gurkhas and providing settlement post-2004. Working across Government, across the House and with Gurkha representatives, we have done the right thing today, and that is the basis on which I have made this announcement.

May I also welcome the statement? I do not take it lightly when I rebel against the Government line and, speaking as one of the 27 rebels, I want to thank the ministerial team for doing all that they could to keep their promise to come back to the House.

I want to raise a practical point. If we are talking about 10,000 to 15,000 Gurkhas rightly being able to settle in this country, will my right hon. Friend ensure that other services are put in place, as well as arranging visas and getting people over here? Will she ensure that housing and all the other local authority services that those people will require will be in place? We do not need to spend time in our surgeries over the next three or four years picking up casework because those services have not been put in place. I am sure that she will be working on those details as much as she has done on the visa application scheme, and if she does, this will be a proud day for the Government. I congratulate her on doing this.

The issue of integration into the community was discussed by the Home Affairs Committee in the seminar on Tuesday. It is obviously an issue that the Government, and MPs in their constituencies, take seriously. That is why I welcome the commitment of the Gurkha representatives, and the proposal that they made on Tuesday to lead work with the resettlement board. That work could look at integration, including support and advice for Gurkhas coming to the UK and support for learning English. That will make an important contribution, alongside the commitment that the Government are making on expenditure, whether on benefits, health or education, to provide the Gurkhas with their entitlement, once they have received settlement in this country.

My right hon. Friend will be aware that, as officers of the all-party group on veterans and members of the all-party group on Gurkhas, my hon. Friend Mrs. Humble and I have consistently supported the Gurkha campaign, including in the vote in the House. An enormous number of people in Blackpool have also supported the campaign, not least because of the historic ties that the town has with the Gurkhas, through the Burma Star Association and the British Legion, for example. My right hon. Friend has brought great credit to the Government this afternoon by the clear and simple way in which she has spelled out the new policies. Does she agree that we have a right to be proud of the commitment made by this Government, who were also the first Government to rectify the issue of compensation for far east prisoners of war?

I hope and believe that that is what my ministerial colleagues and I have achieved today. We have been able to do this because of the commitment of Ministers across the Government, Members across the House and Gurkha representatives to engage in a practical way to enable us to overcome some of the difficult issues that had prevented us from making this decision more quickly. I am grateful to all those people, including my hon. Friend Mr. Marsden and his Blackpool colleague, my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood, for supporting us and helping us with the information that has enabled us to do this today.

In my right hon. Friend's statement, she said that she was making resources available within the UK Border Agency to process the applications. Will she assure me that that will be done by bringing in new resources, and not by relocating resources within the UKBA, which would have the undesirable consequence of delaying still further the cases of many of my constituents who are waiting for their applications to be regularised so that they can settle down to a decent life in this country?

I can give my hon. Friend a commitment that we are already speeding up the basis on which we process applications. We are working hard to get through those legacy cases, some of which might be those to which my hon. Friend has referred. The applications for settlement will—rightly, and in line with others—be accompanied by a fee, which will help us to ensure that we have the resources in place to deal with them. It is because I have confidence in the ability of the UK Border Agency to process these applications and others quickly and effectively that I am able to make the commitment that I have made today.

I thank both the Home Secretary and the Minister for Borders and Immigration for being so prompt in responding to my request to re-examine the 20-year service requirement; reassurance was given only four weeks ago, and we have today heard the announcement that it is going down to four years. Will my right hon. Friend talk to the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills to ensure that young Gurkhas living in families here who are doing well at school will not be subject to overseas fees when they go on to university?

Of course, if people have settlement in this country, they are entitled to all the things that come with it. If there are issues that relate not so much to people as Gurkhas but to people as overseas students with respect to universities, I am sure that my right hon. Friend will bear them in mind in line with overall policy on access to higher education.

I welcome my right hon. Friend's statement as it has been welcomed throughout the House. I am sure that it will also be welcomed by the Nepalese former Gurkha community in my constituency, particularly in Burnt Oak. May I press the Home Secretary further on the pension? She is right to say that it is a separate issue, but it is also fair to say that people will not be able to live in the UK on a Nepalese Gurkha pension. While it is all well and good to say that people can live on benefits, that is not the same as living on a pension as of right. I caution my right hon. Friend that this issue is not going to go away; some of us will continue to campaign on it.

That was certainly not the view of the Home Affairs Committee, which felt that it was possible to separate out the issue of settlement from that of pensions. We have very much lived up to our responsibility as a Government first to those Gurkhas discharged after 1997, who have been granted entitlement to move on to the wider armed forces pension scheme and, secondly, to those discharged pre-1997, who have received—thanks to this Government's investment—a much enhanced entitlement under the Gurkha pension scheme. It was the distinction between pre and post-1997 that was upheld in the court ruling, and we believe that the same distinction is being upheld in the policy that we are announcing.

I congratulate this Government, who have done more than any other Government in history for the Gurkhas. I wish that the pre-1997 Gurkhas had been given their rights earlier, but today is a day for rejoicing. I congratulate the Government once again on listening, and thank them very much.

I thank the hon. Gentleman, who I know has campaigned hard on this issue. As I said, I believe that this is a credit to the House. As a Government we have listened to the will of the House and delivered the right result today.