Hundreds of thousands of signatures have been delivered to Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling for an end to discrimination against former Gurkhas.

Protestors gathered in Westminster on Thursday as the petitions were delivered to Number 10 Downing Street.

They heard speeches from actress and campaigner Joanna Lumley, Shepway Lib Dem Peter Carroll, Conservative MP David Davis, actress Virginia McKenna and others.

Two Victoria Cross holders, Tul Pun and Lachhiman Gurung, laid a wreath at the Cenotaph and escorted the petitions to the Prime Minister's residence.

As the law stands, all those Gurkhas - Nepalese soldiers in the British Army - who retired before 1997, when the regiment came to Folkestone from Hong Kong, do not have the same rights as those who stayed on afterwards. Their pensions are worth less and they do not have the right to remain in the UK.

More than 243,000 signatures were collected over the past few weeks by the Gurkha Justice Campaign and they were collected in mail bags for delivery by hand.

Speaking outside Number 10, Joanna Lumley said: “My father was a Gurkha and served for 30 years – I am a daughter of the regiment. They were the finest men he ever met and the best of the best.

“The Government made a ruling which was found to be unfair and next week when the Home Secretary puts forward her new policies we hope she will say that the 1997 rule has been overturned.

“We are saying if you let anyone in the country, let the first in line be the Gurkhas. It is a debt of honour and a debt that has been paid for. It’s a ghastly and shameful mistake that must be over-ruled ... and it will be.”