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Influencing the Political Agenda

Joanna Lumley

The jury chose Joanna Lumley for an Influencing the Political Agenda award, because of her outstandingly effective campaign on behalf of the Gurkhas. The celebrated actress, whose father served for 30 years with the 6th Gurkha Rifles, has been a leader of the Gurkha Justice Campaign championing the right of Gurkha pensioners to settle in Britain. Through her persistence, charm and media appeal, and skill in exploiting apparent miscommunications within government, she succeeded in appealing to the Prime Minister himself and extracting major concessions for the Gurkha cause.

In her campaign to achieve residency status for retired Gurkhas, Joanna Lumley proved she was more than a match for the most seasoned of political operators. Her attachment to the cause springs from her father's long association with the 6th Gurkha Rifles. Major James Rutherford Lumley was serving with the regiment in Kashmir, India when Ms Lumley was born in 1946. Ms Lumley was educated at St Mary's School, Hastings before beginning a career in modelling. She posed for, among others, Patrick Lichfield, and also worked with designer Jean Muir. By the end of the 1960s she was one of the top ten models in Britain. Her early acting career included appearances in a number of films including On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and on television in series such as Steptoe and Son, Coronation Street and Are You Being Served? But her big break came in 1976 when she starred alongside Patrick Macnee in The New Avengers, a revival of the iconic 1960s TV series. Another hit series in which she starred, Sapphire and Steel, debuted in 1979 and ran for three years. She was spectacularly successful as Patsy in the comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, as a foil to Jennifer Saunders's Edina.

When the plight of the Gurkha veterans hit the headlines in 2008, Joanna Lumley used all her powers of charm and persuasion to influence the government to change its policy. Gurkhas who served in the British Army before 1997, unlike those serving since then, had been denied the right to settle in the United Kingdom. In November 2008, Ms Lumley led a march from Parliament Square to Downing Street to present the prime minister with a petition signed by a quarter of a million people. The momentum of support for the Gurkhas' cause increased and in April 2008 a Liberal Democrat motion that Gurkhas retiring before 1997 should be offered residency rights was passed in defiance of the government.

Shortly afterwards Ms Lumley held talks with both the immigration minister Phil Woolas and the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, with the aim of assuring a positive outcome for the Gurkhas' campaign. On 20 May the Home Secretary announced that all Gurkha veterans who had completed four years' service before 1997 would be allowed to settle in Britain. Following the campaign's victory Ms Lumley travelled to the Gurkhas' home country, Nepal, where she received a hero's welcome.

In addition to her work for the Gurkha campaign Ms Lumley has been active in support of a number of other causes, including Compassion in World Farming, the Born Free Foundation, the Free Tibet Campaign and Mind. Ms Lumley is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and has received an honorary degree from the University of St Andrews and honorary doctorates from the University of Kent and Queen's University Belfast. She was awarded the OBE in 1995.