Woolas ‘ambushed’ in row over Gurkhas

Milnrow and Newhey MP Phil Woolas was embroiled in a row with actress Joanna Lumley over the rights of Gurkhas to live in Britain.

Immigration Minister Mr Woolas, MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, was ambushed yesterday at the Westminster television studios by the television star who is campaigning for the Nepalese veterans.

Miss Lumley had called a press conference to highlight the apparent rejection of five Gurkha veterans just hours after Prime Minister Gordon Brown assured campaigners he would take personal charge of the issue. Lawyers for some of the applicants had received Home Office letters explaining they did not meet criteria for entry.

When she arrived at the Millbank studio in London, she encountered Mr Woolas and challenged him over the rejections.

Only a private, last-minute meeting between Miss Lumley and Mr Woolas defused the row when he gave her reassurances the men’s cases would be re–examined.

When the pair appeared before the television cameras together, Ms Lumley said: “Downing Street telephoned me and said ‘we have just heard about these letters’.

“Gordon Brown didn’t know about them. It seemed that the Prime Minister didn’t know about them and I think he was very anxious because it is in direct contradiction of what we were talking about yesterday.”

Mr Woolas said the applications had been rejected under existing rules, which ministers pledged to re-examine following their Commons defeat last week.

He said the letters were not letters of rejection but explained the legal process

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: “At worst this was a betrayal of the Gurkhas and at best a monumental shambles in Government where one part didn’t know what the other part was doing.”