Martin Salter, the current MP for Reading West, failed to vote in the debate yesterday which saw his Labour Government defeated over their current Gurkha policy.

Alok Sharma, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Reading West, said: “I was very pleased to see Mr. Salter raise the Gurkha issue at Prime Minister’s Questions but then hugely disappointed to learn that despite all Mr. Salter’s grandstanding over this issue, when it came to a crucial vote, Mr. Salter put party loyalty above his support for the brave Gurkha veterans."

Alok continued: "Mr. Salter has made a career out of opposing his Government’s policies locally whilst supporting the same policies in Parliament but I really thought that on this occasion he would do the right thing and support the Gurkhas since their campaign has cross-party support. Sadly it seems impossible, when it really matters, for Mr. Salter to put principles above party loyalty.”

Alok Sharma concluded: “I hope Mr. Salter will have the decency to apologise to our local Reading Gurkhas for skipping out on this crucial vote and will reconsider whether he really is the right person to chair the All Party Parliamentary Group on Gurkhas' Rights given his inability to support the Gurkhas when it really mattered.”