Immigration (Discharged Gurkhas) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Lee of Trafford and thank him for introducing this excellent Bill, which I—and I am sure most, if not all—noble Lords will wholeheartedly support. Our military ties with the Gurkhas go back centuries, and during that time Gurkha troops have shown the greatest courage and loyalty to this country. It is interesting to remember how interwoven the Gurkha regiments are in the fabric of our British military history and culture. The moving speech of the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, is testament to that. In 1995, I was canvassing in the small village of South Tawton, near Okehampton, in what was my constituency. I knocked at an attractive house and a very smart couple came to the door. I recognised the man and noticed through the corner of my eye various Gurkha—or should I say ““Goorkha””?—photographs and memorabilia. I was privileged to be calling on the late Colonel Nick Neill and his charming wife, Margaret. Incidentally, I found out recently that he is a close relation of the noble Lord, Lord Neill of Bladen. I was part of the advance party of 42 Commando Royal Marines and we took over the Lundu area of Borneo from Colonel Neill’s battalion, the 2/2 King Edward VII’s Own Gurkha Rifles, or Sirmoor Rifles, sometimes known as God’s own Gurkhas. It was my privilege to have him as my commanding officer, albeit for only about two or three weeks. Margaret Neill’s father and two of her brothers were 6th Gurkhas. Colonel Neill’s career is a reminder—if one is needed—of the wonderful, brave and courageous service that the Gurkhas have given during and since World War II. He won a Military Cross in 1944 and in 1945 he was a company commander at Arakan during some of the fiercest fighting in the Burma campaign. One of his company, Bhanubhakta Gurung, who died recently and to whom the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, referred, won, I believe, the last Gurkha Victoria Cross awarded in World War II. The House will recall that Rambahadur Limbu, a 10th Gurkha, won the Victoria Cross in Borneo in the mid-1960s. Colonel Neill spent 10 years with his battalion jungle-fighting in the Malay emergency and commanded his battalion on a series of tours during the confrontation in Borneo. He then went on to command the Gurkha Depot at Sungei Patani. The Malay emergency and the Borneo confrontation even today serve as textbook examples as to how successfully to prosecute these wars. General Petraeus, the eminent United States commander in Iraq, has been a keen student of both those campaigns. The Gurkhas were indispensable in both of them. They effectively ran the Jungle Warfare School; I was reminiscing with the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, about our respective times as students at that establishment. The Gurkhas have continued to give gallant and committed service. They have fought in the Falklands; they are now in the Middle East; they fought in Sierra Leone; and they provide enormous strength to our foreign policy in the Far East in the work that they do in Brunei. The Bill gives rights of residence in the United Kingdom to Gurkhas who retired before 1997, and I strongly support it. The Government, to their credit, have done much to improve the terms and conditions of service for Gurkhas. I am proud that my right honourable friend in the other place, Mr Nick Clegg, raised this matter at Prime Minister’s Questions on 25 June last. I believe that both Houses recognise that we owe the Gurkhas a debt of honour which we can never repay. The Bill, if passed, will go some way towards honouring that debt.