MP Richard Graham is encouraging everyone with an interest in our campaign to listen to the Budget tomorrow – Chancellor George Osborne will talk from 12.30pm on for about an hour. Coverage begins at 11.30am on BBC 2. This is the latest press release from MP Richard Graham’s office: ‘City MP has called on the Chancellor to right an historic injustice in the last few days of this Parliament. After leading a debate on the issue recently, Gloucester MP Richard Graham has appealed to the Chancellor to allow all the widows and widowers of officers who were subject to the Police pensions regulations 1987 the chance to keep their pension if they remarry or cohabit. "Recent changes to the law that affect police widows in Northern Ireland, and all Armed Forces widows, set a good precedent", said Richard: "it is time that police widows no longer have to choose between happiness without a pension or loneliness and financial security". The MP is backing widow Cathryn Hall, whose petition has 73,000 signatures, and who he met at the debate he led a month ago. "Cathryn and all the widows I met, including two from Gloucestershire, showed a remarkable and quiet determination. This encouraged me to push forward their cause." Gloucester's MP said that settling this historic injustice would be a great way to end this Parliament.’ Exerpt from Mr Graham’s ezine article: ‘…..But there's one thing more I would like to help achieve before the end of this Parliament: justice for a number of Police widows and widowers, whose husbands or wives were members of the Police Pension Regulations 1987. This is a good cause that I became aware of just before Christmas. The rules of that scheme did not allow police widows or widowers to re-marry or cohabit without losing their right to a police pension for life. PC Colin Hall’s widow, Cathryn Hall, was left at the age of 24 in 1987 to bring up her four-year-old daughter alone. She faced a decision none of us would want: to keep her police widow’s pension and live alone; or to move in with her partner, and lose it. I have moving letters from many widows about similar situations. There are three from Gloucestershire Constabulary widows. Sharon Jones, widow of Chief Inspector Ian Jones, survived on the pension and brought up three children on her own. She recently met another man and married him at the end of October 2014, which she wrote “brings me a wonderful opportunity to start a new life. However, as a result of this, I have lost my pension entitlement and being penalised for finding new love after ten years alone". The situation is not at all of this government's making. Previous governments, understandably, were concerned about precedents and changing the rules retrospectively. They changed the rules in 2006 for future situations. But that left a group of perhaps 800 widows and widowers behind. So we now have an opportunity to do the right thing, as we've done on several other unrelated issues, in the last few days of this Parliament. There are also now two other encouraging precedents. Firstly we changed the law on pensions for widows and widowers of the former Royal Ulster Constabulary Police in Northern Ireland so that they will now receive their pension for life, irrespective of whether the survivor remarried or formed a new partnership. And secondly we changed the rules in a very similar way last Remembrance Sunday on the pensions for all Armed Forces widows and widowers, effective this April. What is true for soldiers, sailors and airmen and women is surely also true for our police, and perhaps for our Fire and Rescue service too, if they have a similar group of widows or widowers affected by earlier regulations. The Police Minister, who has himself seen active service, was sympathetic in the debate, and when I introduced him and his supportive PPS Steve Brine to a group of widows. He encouraged Cathryn Hall and others to make a compelling case, and I believe they have done so. In signing Cathryn's petition some 73,000 people have also agreed. The bottom line is that no widow or widower should lose out financially because they decide to re-marry or cohabit - something good for both those directly involved AND often also for any children. It's time to recognise that we can put right Cathryn and Sharon's cruel situations. So I appealed to the government's best interests and have made the case to the Chancellor since. We'll see on Wednesday if the government has been swayed, the funds found and an historic injustice of no-one's making put right. That would be a good note for our government to finish this Parliament on, a good way to finish my first five years of being a parliamentarian, and above all a long overdue step forward for Cathryn, Sharon and all the Police widows and widowers. Fingers crossed - and let me know if you agree with me on richard4gloucester@gmail.com’ Can we also remember the major part played by MP Steve Brine in progressing our campaign to this crucial stage; as Mr Penning’s PPS he has had to adopt a less public role with regards to the campaign, but has been working away in the background on our behalf. Cathryn