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Gurkha Settlement Rights

I shall seek to be briefer than the previous two speakers, in recognition of how many Back Benchers are willing to speak. It is a rare but genuine pleasure to support the motion moved by the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Chris Huhne). We tabled an amendment, which the Minister misunderstands; it would improve the motion in small but important ways that I shall come to later. This is a day for the whole House to speak up for the Gurkhas and for the overwhelming majority of the people of this country who want to support them. We will vote for the motion, because our analysis of the Government's position is very simple: the Government are wrong. The Minister spent a lot of time talking about history. Let me give him a bit more history, because he does not seem to understand it. In 1997 the terms of the Gurkhas' engagement changed radically; their headquarters were moved to this country and they started doing tours of duties in this country; and so some of their children started to be educated in this country. Therefore, to say that a Government whose term had ended before that change happened should somehow have changed the rules to recognise that is simply absurd—but that was the assertion that the Minister made in his speech. The Minister also asked what has changed since the—very wise—words of my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Norfolk (Mr. Simpson) in 2004. What has changed is the court decision. The Government were taken to court and lost the case, so for the Minister to say that nothing has changed since then is also absurd. I assure hon. Members that a Conservative Government would scrap this Labour Government's plans for the Gurkhas, although I hope that the House passes the motion so that we can proceed more rapidly. I have rarely seen such an outpouring of public outrage as the one that has engulfed the Minister since he made his ill-fated decision last week.