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SOPHY RIDGE: Now let’s go to our next guest who is Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Peter Dowd, hello to you, thanks for being with us.

PETER DOWD: Good morning.

SR: Now earlier in the programme I spoke to Dr Liam Fox and he said in certain circumstances he’d be happy if the transition deal were extended by a few months in order to minimise any disruption to Brexit. What’s your thoughts on that, would you be happy with a longer transition?

PETER DOWD: It’s a shame really, I don't think that the transition would have had to have been any longer than necessary if the government had its boots on, it’s shoes on but it has so it’s whatever it takes to make the best transition possible so if that extends the transition a bit to make things better, well so be it.

SR: Some people who wouldn’t be happy just with an extension to the transition deal are the tens of thousands of people who marched in London yesterday calling for a vote on the final Brexit deal and that famous Jeremy Corbyn song, ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn’ was translated into ‘Where’s Jeremy Corbyn?’ They feel that the Labour leader has abandoned them, what’s your message for them?

PETER DOWD: Well for a kick off he hasn’t abandoned us and he was actually in some camps on the Jordan/Syrian border where there are refugees so that’s not a fair assessment of things. The bottom line is, we had a vote just two years’ ago and the vote was to come out of Europe and given that, we’ve got to get the best deal we possibly can given that the people have already spoken. I think it’s fairly straightforward in that regard, it’s a complicated set of negotiations but the principle is, the decision has been made by the British people to come out and we respect that.

SR: The people on the march, many of them Labour supporters, would argue yes, people voted to leave the European Union but why shouldn’t be another vote on the deal that is done because there is a whole range of things that could happen, they are very worried about their future and they feel okay, Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t at this march itself for very valid reasons but they feel he is not representing them politically.

PETER DOWD: Well we are. We set six tests out which we set out well over 12 months ago for the negotiations. We also indicated that we would like to stay in the customs union and an internal market, we’ve been as clear as possible. The fact that that has been drowned out in a sense is not something we can absolutely control. Quite simply we’ve got negotiations going on, the government needs to get on with those negotiations, we will support them where those negotiations are in the interests of the British and we won’t support them where we don’t believe they are in the interests of the British economy, a jobs and economy first policy.

SR: Now Labour today are announcing that they want more money if they are in government for UN peacekeeping missions. Now you are the money man if you like, you’re in charge of the purse strings so where else in the defence budget is that money going to come from because people will probably not be very happy at all if the money is being taken away from things such as equipment or personnel.

PETER DOWD: Well we will triple the amount in relation to peacekeeping in the budget. In fact some people argue that that of itself helps with the whole issue of defence spending. We’ll look at defence spending, we are committed to the 2% NATO target and we will continue to deliver on that and we will continue to have a policy which is one of dialogue with our partners and not some sort of shouting match across the piece. So as far as we’re concerned we’ll talk to our partners and we will try and get a defence policy and a policy which interacts with countries and interacts in those warring areas rather than necessarily this constant, literally this constant battle day in and day out. The issue is diplomacy solves these problems, not necessarily armed conflict.

SR: Talking about spending, I am keen to talk to you as well about the NHS because last week of course the Conservatives announced £20 billion more for the health service, perhaps taking Labour slightly by surprise because it was more than Labour were currently offering so I was wondering if you could clear a few things up for us. Who is offering more money to the NHS, is it Labour or is it the Conservatives and if you are matching what they are going to be spending on the health service, where are you finding the extra cash from?

PETER DOWD: Well let’s be clear about this one, we’re having to catch up. The reality is that we’re having to catch up with all these years of 1.4% growth every year in the NHS when it’s needed 3 or 4% so there is a bit of a catch up going on there. We have committed to £9 billion in our first year, we have also committed to social care spending, that was set out in our manifesto and of course lifting the pay cap in the NHS, that was all set out in our manifesto. The reality is with this, we will be inheriting the Tories proposals so we will see what those Tory proposals, how they are going to fund them but the reality is we have inherited them but the reality is yes, we are committed to spending what has been generally acknowledged as being needed which is round about between 4.8 and 5% a year so we will find that funding but of course we will be inheriting this from the Tories.

SR: So where are you going to find the funding from?

PETER DOWD: Well that’s the point, we will be inheriting, wherever the Tories find that money from we will be inheriting that. But look, the government haven’t even said where they are going to be getting that money from yet. We will inherit whatever they decide to do.

SR: Hang on a minute, you say you are going to inherit whatever the Conservatives decide to do but you don’t agree that there’s going to be a Brexit dividend do you, so how does that work?

PETER DOWD: No, there won’t be a Brexit dividend. We set aside in our Funding Britain’s Future where the spending will come from. We’ll be taxing the top 5% and corporations, we won’t be reducing the 26% down to 17%, that is where we will be getting the money from.

SR: Okay, thank you very much Peter Dowd.