If Britain decides to stay In, how would Indians be better off?
In my view Britain has got to stay in the EU, because it is right for our prosperity. It is also important because we are seen as attractive to people coming to work, coming to invest, because we are gateway to Europe. Our culture, heritage, history is so close, particularly to our Commonwealth nations that we have to learn history together. I don't believe any of us have anything to gain from leaving, from turning our back on our neighbours. When we think of the challenges the world faces, we are much stronger when we stand together.
Recent polls show Brexit having a slight edge over Remain campaign. Does it disturb the Labour Party?
Anyone who is interested in us remaining in this country, the Labour Party is absolutely campaigning for us to stay in the EU. Of course, we are going to be concerned but what we are more concerned is that people are in many ways being misled and betrayed as well – whether that is the issue of immigration, the issue of shortage of chefs, family visas, policies of the government brought in – we were very concerned about them in the last Parliament and would have asked for review. Those are the issues on which the Leave campaign is now seeking to gain support.
You have Boris Johnson talking about more money for the NHS. But we know already there is a 10 billion pounds black hole in the NHS from the Tories own finances right now. He has said in the past that the people would value the NHS more if they paid fund.
Michale Gove, another Leave campaigner, said the NHS should be dismantled. Daniel Hannan, who is a Tory MEP, has said he believes NHS is a relic. When you have got people leading that campaign who don't believe in the NHS, how could you ever believe that they would guarantee more funding going to it. So I think it is important to separate national issues and those issues of the EU. And anything that we believe needs to be changed, we should do that by leading, not by leaving.
There is a fear that Britain is becoming less British. How do you allay that fear?
I have never seen Britain becoming less British. Britain is British. Look we have just elected the first ethnic minority mayor (Sadiq Khan) with the largest number of votes in the history here. And that measure of support from people of all backgrounds to a single politician because of what they believed is a mark of how we believe in having a united politics in this country. I believe Britain is really strong, standing tall in the world.
With the influx of migrants, how do you plan to generate more jobs for the immigrants?
What's important to recognise is that when people talk about immigration in these terms, they were doing the same for my parents and they were doing the same for others' grandparents. I don't believe there's a language around which we should be happy and we should be talking. Many people are coming because they are working here. They are working because there are also jobs here because the economy has grown and that's what makes Britain attractive. And people have been paying taxes. Those taxes are going to the public services that are serving all of us. And what we need to be clear about is as the economy grows as we need to deal with filling those jobs and dealing with those skills – I was in the North-west recently where in the construction there is 80,000 skills gap to what they have to do in the future. These are skills we need to make sure people in Britain have access to as well. What I have been campaigning for in the Parliament is to make sure that the government is investing in skills. Those are domestic issues. And it's right we look to growing our economy and not looking to shrink it and being satisfied with that.
