AN MP is demanding justice for a local war widow whose pension was stopped when she remarried.

Susan Rimmer lost her first husband, Private James Lee, in July, 1972 when he was serving with the 1st Battalion the Duke of Wellington's Regiment in Northern Ireland.

Pte Lee, who grew up in Otley, died when a bomb planted by Republican terrorists exploded underneath the armoured vehicle he was travelling in near Crossmaglen, in South Armagh. He was 25.

His widow, Susan, of Otley, was only 19 and six months pregnant.

The war widow pension stopped seven years later when she re-married, to David Rimmer, in 1979.

Under complicated government rules related to the dates of 'end of service' and remarrying, her pension cannot be reinstated unless she loses her current husband or they divorce.

MP Greg Mulholland (Lib Dem, Leeds North West) has slammed that as a "gross injustice" - and raised Mrs Rimmer's case in the House of Commons as an example of a wider problem.

Speaking afterwards, he said: "It is therefore a very strange anomaly where a widow who remarried before 1973 or after 2005 can rightly keep her pension, but not if she married during that time period."

The Leader of the House of Commons, Chris Grayling MP said he "took on board" Mr Mulholland's points and would be raising them with the Secretary of State for Defence.