The Government suffered another day of embarrassment at the hands of Joanna Lumley yesterday after it wrote to five Gurkhas refusing them residency.

The actress and campaigner, who a day earlier had emerged from Downing Street to say that she was reassured by Gordon Brown’s promise that he would “do the right thing” by the soldiers, said that she had been shocked at the letters of rejection.

To make matters worse, she claimed Downing Street did not know about the letters sent by the Home Office.

In scenes of extraordinary political pantomime, Ms Lumley revealed the Government’s desperate attempts to prevent her making her anger public. She then held impromptu talks with Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, after an encounter in a TV studio.

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Chris Huhne, of the Liberal Democrats, said: “At worst this was a betrayal of the Gurkhas, at best a monumental shambles in Government.” David Cameron, the Conservative leader, urged Mr Brown to “get a grip”.

After the row erupted, Ms Lumley was telephoned by Downing Street saying it had “just heard” about the letters. Only a private last-minute meeting between the Absolutely Fabulous actress and Mr Woolas defused the matter when he told her that the cases would be re-examined.

“It seems the Prime Minister didn’t know about this and I think he was very anxious because it is exactly in contradiction to what he was talking about yesterday,” she said.

In a timely intervention, the minister “bumped” into Ms Lumley before she spoke to reporters. They held a hurried meeting in which he said that the Government remained committed to the Gurkha review. He said the letters were not a formal rejection but merely part of a legal process and each case would be reviewed. “We have 1,500 appeals against refusals that we are considering,” he said. “We have granted over 100 of those cases since last week. By the end of this month we will work through those 1,500 cases.”

The minister’s comments failed to satisfy all the campaigners who last week helped to push the Government to a defeat in the Commons. “We take comfort but we have taken comfort before, again and again,” said one of the lawyers who has been representing the Gurkhas.

Gyandendra Rai was one of those who received a rejection letter. He served for 13½ years, including time in the Falklands, where he was badly injured by shrapnel.

Ms Lumley said: “For all the minister’s kind words of reassurance . . . I think there is so little to be reviewed, so little to be looked at — except that all these men, all these applications, should be received with open arms. There are only 1,500, minister. Shall we wave them in?”

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