UP to 1,000 Gurkhas in Swindon are losing out on their pension rights.

That is the claim of one former Army major, who met town MP Robert Buckland this week to lobby to have the law changed.

Gurkha Santa Pun, of Highworth, joined the forces in 1974 and served loyally, but said that hundreds of Swindon Gurkhas were upset they could not claim the same pension rights as their British counterparts.

Instead, those who served before 1997 get just one third of the pension they normally would.

He and fellow Nepalese comrades met Mr Buckland on Wednesday in the hope that by lobbying the Government, they can get the rules changed.

“If they have done nine years of service, they count only three years of service. That’s very strange,” he said.

“In Swindon, it will roughly speaking affect about 1,000. I would rather appreciate if they counted it year-by-year service.

“Most of the Gurkhas, if you talk to them, this is what they’ll say: Pension is the biggest issue they feel.”

He said war widows of Gurkhas also received reduced pensions.

He and a delegation of others, some from an Aldershot Gurkha society, met Mr Buckland at his constituency office in Milton Road.

It is the second time a contingent has met Mr Buckland in the last few weeks.

Mr Buckland, Tory MP for south Swindon, said: “ “I would like to see change. I think it is going to be difficult to achieve equality.

“But it doesn’t seem to me to be a fair situation, bearing in mind the fact they were offering themselves up in our armed services and facing the same risks as other soldiers and brigades.”