Gurkhas challenge for right to stay

To the skirl of bagpipes playing Cock o' The North, she walked through a guard of honour of Gurkhas in their traditional hats to the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice in London's Strand.

The Ab Fab star then knelt before two veteran Gurkha VC holders in wheelchairs to offer her best wishes in their test case being brought by five Gurkhas and a widow.

"I want to see justice done," she told Lachhiman Gurung, 91, and Tul Bahadur Pun, 86, who served with her father during the Second World War in Burma. She then told the hundreds of supporters outside the courts which had been turned into a Gurkha stronghold: "I am so happy to be able to lend my support to your cause."

Gurkhas and their wives and families massed outside the courts holding banners reading: "Thirteen Gurkhas won VCs but are banned from the UK" and "We British Gurkhas demand Justice and Equality".

Earlier, the two veterans had posed for pictures holding a Union flag and a portrait of the Queen.

The protest came before a judge began hearing a challenge by more than 2,000 British Army Gurkhas to a tribunal ruling on their immigration status.

Gurkhas who retired from the British Army after 1997, when their base was moved from Hong Kong to Kent, can automatically stay in the UK. But those who retired earlier and whose individual settlement cases were decided by visa officials in Kathmandu and Hong Kong must apply for permission to stay and may be refused and deported.

All other foreign soldiers in the British Army have a right to settle in Britain after four years of service anywhere in the world.

Part of the Government's explanation for refusing settlement rights is that some Gurkhas "lack strong ties with the country". The Gurkhas have also struggled for many years for equal pension rights which, for those who retired before 1997, are about a quarter of the level paid to those who served after that time.