ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO SKY NEWS, SOPHY RIDGE ON SUNDAY

SOPHY RIDGE: Well let’s get more on the Iranian story and find out how the Labour party think the government should be reacting. Joining us now from Uxbridge in West London is the Shadow Justice Secretary, Richard Burgon. Thank you for being on the programme this morning.

RICHARD BURGON: Good morning Sophy.

SR: So how should the UK government respond to the news that the Iranians have seized a UK flagged tanker?

RICHARD BURGON: Well I think that obviously it’s unacceptable for those vessels to be seized and they should be released but what we need to avoid, and I’m pleased that some Conservative MPs have also spoken out on this, what we need to avoid is a kind of escalation and being dragged in by Donald Trump to something which could be very dangerous indeed so what we really need to do as a country and as a government is use our diplomatic weight, use our negotiating skill really to get people around the table and also to get the United States and get Iran back into the very important nuclear deal as well because going away from that risks things really getting out of control and I don't think any sensible person wants that.

SR: You mentioned Donald Trump there, do you think we’re effectively being dragged into a conflict that is really between Iran and the US?

RICHARD BURGON: If we’re not careful then that could be the case so that’s why we need to take a deep breath, that’s why we need to use our diplomatic weight. I think we can play a very positive role in this and can play a very positive role internationally and our role is to speak up for conflict resolution, de-escalation, the nuclear deal, discussions about a whole range of things but what we don’t want to do is end up being just the messengers or sidekicks of Donald Trump and John Bolton. I’m encouraged by some of the things that Conservative MPs have said about this, I don't know what the next Prime Minister is going to say about this and that does concern me greatly.

SR: You talked there about Donald Trump, talked about John Bolton. Jeremy Corbyn tweeted yesterday to say that Donald Trump tearing up the Iran nuclear deal has fuelled confrontation, are you not worried that this just plays into some people’s fears that Labour will side with people who aren’t our allies against people who are our allies? Iran has seized a UK tanker.

RICHARD BURGON: Can you repeat the last part of that question please, I couldn’t hear that properly.

SR: Do you worry that by talking about the US in this context, you are playing into people’s fears that the Labour party will support people who are not their allies above our allies such as the US when Iran has seized a UK tanker?

RICHARD BURGON: No, no, it’s not about that, what it’s about is trying to avoid the mistakes of the past. People will remember the great tragedy of Iraq and I’m really ashamed it was a Labour Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who sided with George Bush on that. I think Jeremy Corbyn and others got it correct on that. What we want to ensure doesn’t happen is that the mistakes of the past are repeated because the mistakes of the past cost many, many lives, the mistakes of the past made things worse and fuelled terrorism and hatred and that’s what we don’t want. We don’t want to get into a situation where things get out of control, I think we’re with the mainstream opinion on this where we don’t want it to ratchet up, ending up getting out of control, ending up with military action because if we did it would be even worse than Iraq and that doesn’t help anybody.

SR: Can you really compare what’s happening now to Iraq?

RICHARD BURGON: If we end up in a conflict backed by Donald Trump, I think it would not only be comparable with Iraq in fact it could be even worse than Iraq and that should really scare everybody. So we need sensible negotiations, we’ve got a really important part to play diplomatically in this, we can use our negotiating weight. I think that our government has international respect and our country has international respect in a way that Donald Trump doesn’t and I think we ought to use that for the purposes of conflict resolution, for the purpose of making sure this doesn’t escalate out of control.

SR: Okay, you’re in Uxbridge, you’re campaigning to hopefully unseat Boris Johnson and in favour of the Labour candidate there called Ali Milani. Now I just want to ask you about some tweets that the Labour candidate sent back in 2012 and 2013. He tweeted that Israel has no right to exist, he called Piers Morgan a Zionist and he went ‘It will cost you a pound #jew’. How are you supporting someone who said those things?

RICHARD BURGON: Well quite rightly he’s apologised for those tweets and those tweets are disgraceful, he did them when he was a teenager. He’s been on a programme of learning since then, he in fact went to Auschwitz to learn more about where prejudice comes from and where prejudice against the Jewish community can lead so he sent those messages, those tweets, as a teenager. They were wrong, he has fully apologised for them and I’m looking forward to supporting him today because if we’re going to tackle racism, we have got to accept and we’ve got to push education for people. In our society as a whole unfortunately there are lots of racist views held. In recent decades our society has improved in that way but there’s a long way to go as well so what we can’t do is demonise somebody for unacceptable disgraceful tweets when he was a teenager, what we have got to do is encourage him to go on an education process and think again about how the world works, how prejudice works, how racism works and I’m really glad that Ali Milani did that so comprehensively.

SR: I understand what you’re saying, that he sent the tweets when he was a teenager, that he has been trying to reach out to the Jewish community since but at a time when Labour is trying to dampen down accusations that it is not taking anti-Semitism seriously, surely you can find candidates in high profile seats who haven’t made offensive comments about Jewish people in the past.

RICHARD BURGON: I don’t think he should be prevented from being a Labour candidate because of tweets that he’s apologised for that he sent when he was a teenager. I’m sure that there are plenty of things that Boris Johnson did as a teenager which if you applied that rule, would rule him out from being Prime Minister. In fact there are plenty of things that Boris Johnson has said and written more recently, including whilst he was an MP, including whilst he was Mayor of London, including whilst he is in the running to become Prime Minister, which actually render him unacceptable and unsuitable to become Prime Minister.

SR: Okay, well let’s move on shall we because I want to ask you about a member of your Shadow Justice team, Gloria del Piero, who said this week that she is not going to stand in the Labour party at the next election. She said, she quoted “A lack of tolerance for different viewpoints in the Labour party frankly worries me. You have to have respect for each other even if we disagree because we are all part of this party.” Does the lack of tolerance worry you as well?

RICHARD BURGON: I’d encourage you – you probably haven’t had chance but I’d encourage you to read Gloria’s full speech. She announced her decision to her local Labour party a few days ago, she is going to be standing down as an MP at the next general election and standing down from the justice team. In her speech which is well worth reading as part of your research for this interview …

SR: I have read the full speech.

RICHARD BURGON: Oh you’ve read the speech, so what did it say about myself and Jeremy Corbyn and working in a team together as an example?

SR: She was talking about how she has enjoyed working for you and she also praised Jeremy Corbyn but what I am asking about specifically, what I am asking about specifically is the lack of tolerance of different viewpoints in the Labour party.

RICHARD BURGON: What she said in the speech which you have obviously read, there is a paragraph where she says in the speech, Richard – she says – campaigned for Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership election, she Gloria campaigned for Liz Kendall in that leadership election but we have worked together really well on important issues about access to justice and enjoyed that over the last two years and that’s an example to people in the Labour party. So I don’t think – and I know she’d feel this as well by the way – she feels that her speech and her explanation to her members has been mischievously misrepresented by the press and she’s tweeted out about it herself so don’t just take my word for it. See what she put on Twitter as well.

SR: I understand that, she also said in her speech as you say that she’s voted for Labour leaders who have never won from Margaret Beckett all the way through to Owen Smith for example but she also did say in the speech about the lack of tolerance for different viewpoints.

RICHARD BURGON: Well her speech was very long, it’s interesting that you are only interested in one particular sentence in it but what I would say is my focus is I’m sad that the parliamentary Labour party will be losing at the next general election such an effective and energetic Member of Parliament who always speaks up for the area that she represents and I agree, I agree, as John McDonnell, Jeremy and others have always agreed, the Labour party is a broad church, it’s a coalition of socialists, social democrats, trade unionists and other progressives and long may it continue to be that. So I very much agree that in no political party, particularly a political party with over half a million members, do you expect everybody to agree on every single issue. Look, I campaigned for Tony Blair, I campaigned for Gordon Brown, for Ed Miliband, I was proud to campaign for all those Labour leaders and of course Jeremy Corbyn so I think we are a broad church and long may we remain so.

SR: Okay, Richard Burgon, thank you very much for coming on the programme this morning.

RICHARD BURGON: Thank you.