<div id="y-page"><div id="hd"><div id="yumh"><div id="ybar"><ul>[*][/list]</div></div></div><div id="y-content-wrapper"><div id="y-content"><div class="col1"><div class="mod" id="ynw-breaking"><div class="hd"><h2>Breaking News</h2></div><div class="bd"><p style="width: 508px">Terror Camp Pair Jailed For Seven Years In UK</p></div></div><h1>Brown loses Gurkha vote</h1><div class="ynw-article-info"><p class="date updated thishour">8 mins ago</p> <ul class="ynw-utility" style="top: 6px">[*]<font color="#0057a7">Print Story</font> [/list]</div><div class="ynw-article-body mod"><p class="ynw-standfirst"><font color="#0057a7">Gordon Brown</font>'s refusal to allow all Gurkha veterans to settle in the UK because of cost has been dealt a humiliating blow by MPs. Skip related content</p><div class="mod" id="ynw-image-video-inset"><div class="mod"><div class="hd offscreen"><h2>Related photos / videos</h2></div><div class="bd ynw-image-video-inset-preview clr"><div id="ynw-image-video-inset-preview"> MPs outraged at Gurkha settlement plans <span class="play">Play video</span> </div></div></div><div class="mod"><div class="hd"><h2>Related content</h2></div><div class="bd"><ul>[*]<font color="#0057a7">Britain to send more troops to Afghanistan</font> [*]<font color="#0057a7">MP outrage at Gurkha "cost"</font> <li class="video"><font color="#666666">Video: </font><font color="#0057a7">MPs outraged at Gurkha settlement plans</font> <li class="all"><font color="#0057a7">Related Hot Topic: Gordon Brown</font> [/list]</div><div class="ft"> <font color="#666666">Have your say: </font>Gordon Brown</p></div></div></div> A bid to scrap new settlement criteria, brought by the <font color="#0057a7">Liberal Democrats</font>, was surprisingly backed by MPs by 267 votes to 246.</p> Although the vote is not legally-binding, <font color="#0057a7">Liberal Democrat</font> leader Nick Clegg said the Government would now have to change its policy and Mr Cameron called on ministers to come forward immediately with new proposals.</p> Mr Clegg said: "This is the kind of thing that I think people want this country to do, that we pay back our obligations and our debt of gratitude to generations of Gurkhas who laid down their lives for this country."</p> Actress Joanna Lumley said she and the Gurkhas involved in the campaign were "elated".</p> She added: "When it came through we saw it on the screen and I can't tell you the sense of elation, the sense of pride - pride in our country, pride in the democratic system and pride in our Parliament."</p> Earlier, during PMQs, the Prime Minister suggested Britain could not afford the £1.4 billion cost of an open door policy for Gurkhas but promised to keep the issue under review.</p> It comes after the <font color="#0057a7">Home Office</font> announced last week that, despite appeals from Gurkhas and their supporters, they would not allow veterans discharged before 1997 the automatic right to settle in the UK.</p> Instead, strict criteria would be applied to settlement claims such as length of service, bravery medals and service-related medical conditions.</p> But during the cross-party debate in the Commons, some <font color="#0057a7">Labour</font> MPs went against Government policy and joined protests over what campaigners call a "betrayal" of the former soldiers.</p> Labour's Keith Vaz (Leicester E), Home Affairs Select Committee chairman, said he had been in the House too long when a Labour Government was trying to restrict numbers coming into the UK and the <font color="#0057a7">Tories</font> were doing the opposite.</p> Mr Vaz, who has signed Mr Howarth's amendment, said: "I think it is wrong to change an important aspect of policy by an exchange of letters between the Home Secretary and backbenchers, when the Government has had a considerable amount of time to deal with this matter and to fashion a policy that is both fair and just."</p> Labour's Andrew Mackinlay (Thurrock) said Gurkha soldiers were of "enormous benefit" to the UK.</p> He told ministers it was inevitable the campaign to win better settlement rights would ultimately succeed.</p> <font color="#0057a7">Liberal Democrat Party</font> spokesman Chris Huhne claimed the Government had shown a "cavalier attitude" to costs and made a "wild guess" at the number of soldiers wanting to live here.</p></div></div></div></div></div>