Tory Peer takes up cudgels for Gurkha hero

Tory Peer and Victoria Cross expert Michael Ashcroft has joined the fight to bring 84-year-old Gurkha hero Tul Bahadur Pun back to Britain.

London, May 29 : Tory Peer and Victoria Cross expert Michael Ashcroft has joined the fight to bring 84-year-old Gurkha hero Tul Bahadur Pun back to Britain.

Pun was awarded the Victoria Cross - the highest honour for military gallantry - after single-handedly storming Japanese machine gun positions during the Second World War. But despite his astonishing bravery he has been banned from entering and living in Britain because he does not have "strong ties with the UK".

"Irrespective of anything else, this was a man who earned the Victoria Cross in the service of the British. On compassionate and any other grounds, this is somebody that the population of this country would be delighted to have admitted to the UK. To tell him, at the age of 84, to 'bugger off' is despicable," the Daily Mail quoted Ashcroft,as saying.

Lord Ashcroft, the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party and author of the book Victoria Cross Heroes, has arranged a meeting between his advisers and Pun's London solicitor to try to overturn the decision banning him from the UK.

The elderly Gurkha has heart problems, asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure and requires daily medication - which is not always available in Nepal. He wants to come to Britain to ensure he has a reliable supply of medication and good quality care.

He receives 132 pounds a month as Army pension and has to travel from his mountain home to the Gurkha camp at Pokhara - a day's walk away - to collect it.

Lawyers acting for him, along with 2,000 former Gurkhas, will appeal before the immigration courts in London in August.

Pun's Ealing-based solicitor, Martin Howe, said he was grateful for Lord Ashcroft's support.

"I am delighted that a person who is so knowledgeable about the Victoria Cross, and the owner of the world's largest collection, is putting his full weight behind honourable men who are full of integrity," howe was quoted, as saying.

Pun earned his VC in Burma on June 23, 1944, after nearly all his comrades had been killed. He grabbed a Bren Gun and, firing-from the hip and running through ankle - deep mud, ignored "shattering" Japanese fire and stormed machine gun positions.

The medal is now thought to be in the Gurkha Museum in Winchester.

ANI