CorpComms Magazine

You may not have heard of Peter Carroll, but you most certainly will have seen him. For several months last year, he appeared on virtually every front page and television news report. Of course, it is just possible that the famous lady by his side distracted you - she was former model, actress and (now) national treasure Joanna Lumley.

Carroll is the man who launched the campaign that led the previous government to change the law on residency rights for Gurkhas, that distinctive brigade of Nepalese soldiers famed for their fierce bravery and ever-present kukris.

Carroll had no former public relations experience, nor had he any connections in the media, but the campaign that Carroll and a few associates ran on a shoestring budget achieved what many initially dismissed as impossible.

A Liberal Democrat councillor in Folkestone, home of the Royal Gurkha Rifles, Carroll first became involved in the soldiers' rights back in 2004 when four Gurkhas approached him for help to save one of their comrades, who had served 13 years in the army, from deportation. Prior to that, Carroll's campaigning expertise had been targeted at potholes in Kent.

Outdated agreement

The Gurkha had fallen victim to an agreement between India, Nepal and Great Britain, dating back to 1947, that stated a Gurkha soldier must 'be recruited as a Nepali citizen, must serve as Nepali citizen and must be resettled as a Nepali citizen'. Carroll discovered 400 Gurkha soldiers, many of whom had served in Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan, had had their applications for British citizenship turned down or 'permanently stalled' and would be deported to Nepal.

'I relish a challenge. It was a process of How do I get publicity?, so I rang the BBC and a week later appeared on the Jeremy Vine show,' recalls Carroll.

Carroll's radio appearance was followed by three front page articles in the Daily Express in one week. The newspaper swiftly launched a petition, inviting readers to send campaign coupons to Downing Street. 'The Daily Express became passionate about the situation,' says Carroll.

Through his connections in the Liberal Democrats, Carroll was able to persuade former leader Charles Kennedy to raise the issue at Prime Minister's Question Time in September 2004. Shortly afterwards, Prime Minister Tony Blair made the announcement that Gurkhas who had retired after 1997 - when the Brigade's headquarters moved from Hong Kong to Britain - would be allowed to settle. 'It was a key stage in our campaign when that announcement was made,' says Carroll. 'We then put forward a campaign for the rights of those who had retired prior to 1997.' They had been forced to return to Nepal, where they received a monthly pension of £135 - one sixth of their British counterparts - while 5,000 Second World War veterans received no pension for their war service, and had to rely on donations from the Gurkha Welfare Trust.

Work progressed behind the scenes and, in 2006, Carroll joined forces with human rights lawyers Howe & Co who, quite separately, had started to pick up individual cases of Gurkhas fighting extradition with Legal Aid. The Ealing-based lawyers had decided there were grounds for a judicial review of the legal situation at the High Court.

Enter actress - stage right

It was not until 2008, with the High Court appearance looming, that Lumley appeared on the scene. 'I was collecting signatures in Cranbrook, a town in Kent, when a woman signed the petition, told me that she admired what we were doing but suggested I get Joanna Lumley involved because her father had served with the Gurkhas,' concedes Carroll. 'I went home and tried 118118. They said What name? I said Lumley. Initial? J. Town? London? But there was nothing. I then sent emails to people I thought might be her theatrical agents.'

Three weeks later, Carroll was 'eating an Olympic breakfast at a Little Chef on the A1, when I thought I haven't checked the answer machine on my car phone.'

There were three messages - a constituent complaining about rats in allotments in Folkestone; a lady who needed help filling in her benefits form; and a 'posh lady who just left her number,' says Carroll. 'I was annoyed. She didn't say what the call was about.'

It was Lumley. 'She said: Hello, it's Joanna. Tell me the situation. Tell me the story. I did, and asked Will you help me?.' Her reply was simply: 'You bet I will.' Her only demand was to meet Tul Bahadur Pun VC, the Gurkha who saved her father's life in the Second World War.

Over the next few weeks, Carroll sent emails explaining the salient facts and figures to the actress, and a press release announcing her involvement. They met on 16 September 2008, the first day of the High Court hearing, in a corridor of BBC Television Centre, where Lumley was due on breakfast news to highlight the cause. 'I hastily briefed her before she went on. She absorbed the key facts straight away and gave a perfect account on air', says Carroll.

Lumley's involvement lifted the campaign to another level. 'It felt like when you've got a bonfire burning after a struggle, and then you put petrol on it,' Carroll concedes. 'It just went off like a rocket.' While the campaign had received coverage on regional television and local radio, only once did it attain national broadcast coverage - when a handful of retired soldiers handed back their medals. 'Pre Joanna, it was difficult to get Breakfast TV interested,' he adds. 'As the 'Post Joanna' part of the campaign developed, I only had to mention to the media that Joanna would be in attendance, and my phone almost melted under the pressure of press calls.'

Carroll and Joanna went from the studios to the High Court. Met by a crowd of almost 1,000 retired Gurkhas, and a media scrum, Carroll had to ask six Gurkhas to form a human 'snow plough' to push them through the crowd. 'The crush was such that the sky went dark apart from the incessant camera flashes,' he recalls. 'We simply couldn't move.' They were met on the steps by 87 year old Tul Bahadur Pun, waiting in his wheelchair. 'She bent down; he stroked her face and said I remember your father. It's as if you are my daughter,' recalls Carroll.

The High Court duly ruled that the new policy regarding the 1997 cut-off date was illegal and asked for new guidelines to be issued. Two months later without any sign of these, Lumley led a march from Parliament Square to 10 Downing Street, where she handed in a petition with 250,000 signatures. They were finally published in April 2009. Only Gurkha veterans who met one of five requirements, including a bravery award of level one to three or service of 20 years of more, would be allowed to settle. It was a huge blow. Lumley said the decision made her 'ashamed of our administration'. The government insisted the guidance would allow an extra 4,300 Gurkhas to settle in Britain; the campaigners argued they affected fewer than 100. Every news outlet covered the story. 'Joanna gave us celebrity pulling power,' concedes Carroll, who managed the media and logistics.

He identified Home Affairs and Defence journalists, and then used Press Association to reach the regional and local newspapers. The campaign petitioned, marched and rallied so often that Carroll knew the procedures to book the use of each site 'like the back of my hand'. Each venue is the responsibility of a different body: Charing Cross Police manages petitions at Number 10, the Mayor of London is responsible for Parliament Square while the Sergeant at Arms of the House of Commons is responsible for Old Palace Yard, and Westminster Council is responsible for licensing the use of loud hailers and public address systems. 'You need police permission to demonstrate within a mile of Westminster...the fastest we managed to get one of our biggest demos organised was 48 hours,' says Carroll. 'I would generally brief Joanna on what we needed to achieve. The lawyers would brief on the legal points. She was awesomely impressive at getting the angle right first time. She excelled at the crucial meetings with politicians, and generally used praise to get her way.'

The campaign moved up a gear. Letters were written to every Member of Parliament. At Carroll's suggestion, Lumley wrote to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown requesting a meeting. 'I said you need to meet him eyeball to eyeball,' he says. Three letters were sent, but there was no response.

But then the campaign appeared to get a new lease of life. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg offered to help. He filed an Opposition Day Motion, demanding all retired Gurkhas be awarded the right to settle in the UK. Carroll says: 'The House of Commons was full. We were crowded into the Whips Office. An Opposition Day Motion is a powerful thing. You could feel that something really big was about to happen.' It did. The motion was passed by 267 votes to 246 - the first time a government has lost an Opposition Day Motion since January 1978.

Lumley then appeared before the Home Affairs Select Committee, outlining her frustration at the government's stance, particularly Brown's inability to answer her letters. 'I don't know what I have to do. We've gone to the High Court. We've gone to the press. We've gone to the people of the country. We've gone to Parliament. If that's not enough, who do we go to? All of those people have backed the Gurkhas,' she said. 'I literally don't understand democracy if this is not what democracy is.'

Publicly Downing Street said it would consider a further request for a meeting. The next day, Carroll rang Lumley to suggest she called directly. 'She said But darling, I'm doing the oven. I've got my Marigolds on.' She called at 10am. Four hours later, Lumley met Brown in the House of Commons. 'They didn't want the photo opportunity of her walking into Number 10,' says Carroll. 'Brown told her it would cost £4.5 billion to allow the Gurkhas to settle in Britain and would set a precedent. It was astonishing.'

Following the meeting, Lumley announced: 'I think this is now in [the Prime Minister's] hands. Now I feel we've gone to the head man, the man at the top and the leader of our entire nation and I feel absolutely confident he is going to do the right thing for the Gurkhas.' It was a deliberate ploy by the campaign - putting the onus directly on Gordon Brown.

Dictating to MPs

The next day, the campaign suffered a major setback - but one which, ultimately, led to its resolution. The Home Office had written letters of rejection to the six lead Gurkhas who had won the High Court Judicial Review. 'This was either an act of vengeance by the government or a complete 'left hand/right hand' cock up,' says Carroll. 'One of our lawyers, Kieran, was incandescent with rage. We resolved we had to act fast - and hit back hard.' Carroll called Lumley to check she was in London, and hired a restaurant in Millbank for a press conference scheduled for two hours later.

En route to the venue, Carroll's car phone rang. 'A rather formal voice said This is the main switchboard at 10 Downing Street - the Prime Minister wants to get a message to you and Miss Lumley... Looking back, I think this was the moment that I really sensed that we were going to win.' He had a conversation with Brown's parliamentary private secretary 'that would have done Yes Minister proud!' recalls Carroll. 'He tried to persuade me the letters of rejection weren't really letters of rejection. He seemed completely unfazed when I suggested that any letter starting We write to inform you that your application has been rejected is, in most people's world, a letter of rejection. Then he asked we call off our hastily convened press conference, saying the Prime Minister would speak with Joanna as soon as possible. I simply refused. I reasoned that we had to use this opportunity to hit the governm ent hard. The call from Downing Street clearly showed that the pressure was working! Backing off now would give the government and its 'spin machine' time to regroup. He seemed put out by my refusal. I held my resolve and just point blank refused.'

Carroll called broadcast journalists and sent a 'one liner' to the Press Association 'along the lines of Joanna Lumley will be in Millbank at 4.00pm and she is cross!' By the time Carroll, Lumley and the lawyers arrived a crowd had gathered. 'A female BBC journalist, who I knew by sight, said Do you know that Woolas [former Immigration Minister] is in the building? I remember saying No, but I do now! I managed to whisper this into Joanna's ear.'

They waited on the staircase for Woolas. When he appeared, a journalist asked about the letters and if he would like to speak with Lumley. 'He rather imperiously answered by saying I'm sure that she'll like what I have to say. Joanna and I had another whispered conversation. We resolved that she should follow him. By now, he was walking in that way that people do when they really want to run but know that have to look as if they are walking normally,' says Carroll.

As Woolas entered the BBC News 24 studio, a journalist kept his passcard on the door thereby unlocking it. Lumley, Carroll and the lawyers burst into the BBC newsroom. 'It felt as if pretty much every journalist and camera crew on Planet Earth followed. Woolas was live on air,' recalls Carroll. 'A lady, who I guess was the newsroom's manager, said something along the lines of This is a newsroom not a circus. What are all you people doing in my newsroom? GET OUT! I would confess to this being one of the few moments in the campaign where I quietly said to myself My God, what have we got ourselves into this time?'

Lumley was given a set of headphones to listen to Woolas. 'When Woolas emerged from the studio it was pandemonium,' says Carroll. 'The BBC offered a room for us so that Joanna and the lawyers could meet. It was extremely hard hitting. I stayed out to try to control what was now a scene of absolute chaos. When the meeting ended, I explained that we were having our press conference.' To Carroll's surprise, Woolas agreed to participate.

The rest is history. With the embattled minister by Lumley's side, she effectively dictated his policy. 'The minister has explained and I think we are all agreed that we are going to be able to help in the formation of new guidelines [glance at Woolas, who could only nod], so that will be wonderful...which will be completed by July [another glance, nod]...and the 1,500 cases will be looked at, we understand, most sympathetically.' Another perfunctory nod as Lumley stared at the beleaguered politician.

Two weeks later, the former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced the government's U-turn on Gurkhas' settlement rights. The battle had been won. It was a stunning victory.

Carroll, Lumley and up to 30 members of the Gurkha Justice Campaign were invited to tea at Downing Street to celebrate. But by the time Carroll turned up at the gates, word had got out and more than 150 Gurkhas had gathered behind him to join in the festivities. The policeman guarding the entrance did not know what to do. Brown's personal assistant came to the gates for an explanation, but as Carroll asked her: 'Are you going to stop them?' The respected fighters were there to celebrate their success in what had at first appeared an impossible battle.

share me: del.icio.us | digg | reddit | Tweet