MORE messages of support have been coming in for the Wharfedale Observer's Justice for War Widows campaign.

MP Greg Mulholland (Lib Dem, Leeds North West), with backing from the paper, is pushing for the Government to treat everyone who is claiming a war widow's pension – following the death of their partner in service – the same.

Currently, the rules mean widows who remarried between 1973 and 2005 cannot claim their pension while they are with their new husbands.

The system as it is means some 250 women across the country, including Otley resident Susan Rimmer, are not receiving their pension, despite losing their partner while they were serving the country.

Two more war widows – Shirley Thorpe of Addingham and Vee Moore from Staffordshire – wrote letters to the paper this week to speak out against the injustice.

Mrs Moore, a War Widows Association (WWA), member who read the latest campaign update online, said: "I am also a widow, whose husband had been killed by the IRA in Northern Ireland in 1972.

"When I remarried in 1975, I had to give up my war widow's pension, which I thought was unfair and unjust, but I had to comply with the rules.

"At the time of Ian's death, I was 26 years old and had two children – a boy aged seven and a daughter aged three.

"I am now 70 years old and still married to my second husband. I was told if we divorced or if he died I could claim my war widow's pension! How bad is that?"

The campaign petition can be found at change.org/p/ministry-of-defence-justice-for-war-widows .