WARRINGTON'S Euro-MP Brian Simpson has welcomed the Government's decision to pay Gurkha soldiers the same pensions as other servicemen in the British Army.
Mr Simpson said the decision was good news and long overdue.
"Our soldiers are the best in the world and none more so than our Ghurkha regiment," he said.
"They have served with great distinction over many years yet, on retirement, they have been given a pension one-fifth of that received by other soldiers.
"That has now been put right, and about time, too."
Mr Simpson is a supporter of the Gurkha Welfare Trust, which looks after ex-Gurkha soldiers in their native Nepal.
However, the Government's decision has drawn criticism from the British Gurkha Welfare Society because the new agreement does not include Gurkhas discharged before July 1, 1997.
The BGWS recently took out a full-page advert in a national broadsheet calling on Tony Blair to amend the new deal.
Ex-Gurkha soldiers currently have to serve a minimum 15 years before they come close to the pension other soldiers receive if they are discharged after two years.
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