Joanna Lumley's Gurkha campaign was poised for victory today amid reports that Gordon Brown is to allow all the regiment's veterans to settle in the UK
In a major retreat, the Prime Minister is expected to announce as early as tomorrow that the 36,000 former Gurkhas who retired before 1997 will be given the right to live in this country.
The veterans' families are also likely to be given the same entitlement despite earlier Government claims that the reform could cost taxpayers £1.4 billion.
In a decision which infuriated Ms Lumley and other Gurkha supporters, ministers had previously cited the potential expense as justification for new rules which would have severely limited the right of the pre-1997 veterans to move to the UK.
The Prime Minister was forced to order a re-think after suffering a damaging Commons defeat, which also triggered a face to face meeting between him and Ms Lumley and a subsequent extraordinary impromptu press conference in which the actress appeared to be dictating policy to Home Office immigration minister Phil Woolas.
Reports today suggested that Mr Brown has now decided to scrap all restrictions and to give all Gurkha veterans an entitlement to live in this country.
That could open the door to as many as 36,000 veterans, plus roughly twice as many of their family members, although campaigners say that the overall number of arrivals is likely to be no more than 10,000 because many of the retired soldiers will still prefer to stay in their home country of Nepal.
Gurkha supporters will, however, be studying the detail of the looming announcement closely to ensure that the fine print matches any promises that are made by ministers so that all veterans are genuinely covered by any new right to settle.
The original row over the Gurkhas' fate was triggered by a court ruling last year which declared unlawful the Government's previous policy of denying Gurkha veterans who retired before 1997 the right to settle in the UK.
That raised hopes among campaigners that all those who had retired before this date would be allowed to move to this country, but ministers responded instead by announcing more limited reforms.
At the time, the Home Office said these changes would have allowed up to 10,000 veterans and family members to come to this country, although Ms Lumley condemned their decision as shameful as campaigners suggested that the true total would be as few as 400.
The Government's surprise Commons defeat and Ms Lumley's high profile campaign forced Mr Brown to order a review of the new rules and to promise to announce revised regulations by the end of July.
With his political authority weakened by the controversy over Parliamentary expenses, it appears, however, that the Prime Minister has now decided that to bow to popular demand and to abandon any effort to limit the Gurkhas' rights to settle here.
Gurkha veterans who retired after 1997 are already entitled to live in Britain following an earlier decision by the Government.
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