ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Britain and China haven’t been the best of friends of late. Ministerial contact was cut off by the Chinese after the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister met the Dalai Lama last year. Can the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, repair relations? Well he’s there as well with the Chancellor, George Osborne, for a week long trade mission trying to work his charm on the Chinese. Let’s say hello then to Boris Johnson. Presumably Mr Johnson you have no qualms whatsoever about trying to drum up business with a country that has such an appalling record on human rights and democracy?

BORIS JOHNSON: There is two extraordinary things happening at the moment, Dermot, and obviously as Mayor of London my job is to promote the city and to drum up business for our great capital. What you’re seeing at the moment from China is a huge wave of investment and confidence in London and that’s being expressed in all sorts of ways, whether it’s the big investments at Vauxhall, Nine Elms, Battersea or the amazing plans to rebuild Crystal Palace, the huge plan for the Royal Albert Dock, you are seeing big, big, Chinese confidence in London in all sorts of sectors and also an extraordinary boom in British exports and indeed London exports to China and I’m here in this grand pavilion here in the middle of Beijing where there are all sorts of top UK brands – Jaguar Land Rover, Twinings Tea, Churches Shoes, all sorts of stuff, Marks and Spencer, Marks and Spencer and it’s walking out of the shops.

DM: Okay, I know there is a lot of noise there but did you hear my question? I was asking about human rights and democracy, they’ve got an appalling record. The Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister had a perfect right to meet the Dalai Lama didn’t they and the Chinese were wrong to sulk about it?

BORIS JOHNSON: I don’t think you heard my answer Dermot, which is that my job as Mayor is not to have a foreign policy but to get on and promote the interests of the greatest city on earth, which is what we’re doing. If you remember, I came to Beijing in 2008 and I said then that I wanted to see greater relationships between London and Beijing, I wanted to see an intensification of that relationship and it really is happening. Look, we’re seeing many more foreign students, many more Chinese students now coming to London than there were back in 2008, it’s gone up by about 150% almost and that is good news. There is still a way to go, as I’m sure you know, on some of the visa issues more widely. We are still a bit concerned that we are losing tourists, affluent Chinese tourists of whom there are huge numbers who could be spending money in the UK, who could be driving jobs and growth in the UK but who instead are being diverted to other European countries. It’s getting better and we are seeing a big increase now in tourists across the board and from China as well but it could be better still and that is something obviously we are working on as well.

DM: Would you like to meet the Dalai Lama?

BORIS JOHNSON: My job is to get on and promote London, Dermot and there are many interesting foreign policy problems around the world with which I suppose I could involve myself, whether or not that would improve global hopes for a resolution of those crises, I have my reservations. I’ve got to get on and do what I can to promote investment in the greatest city on earth and to champion some of these unbelievable British success stories that you don’t actually hear that much about. Jaguar Land Rover, if I’ve got it right, have sold something like three billion quid’s worth of motors to China just in the last year or so.

DM: Wow. So you’re not allowed to mention the spiritual leader of Tibet there, can you say his name?

BORIS JOHNSON: He’s the Dalai Lama, you’ve mentioned him repeatedly but this is not the reason I’m here in China and I think since you’ve now had four goes at this, Dermot, and I’ve given you the same answer every time, I think we can respectfully move on to the real agenda which is intensifying links between London and Beijing and today I signed what I think is quite a good memorandum with the Mayor of Beijing so we can work together on partnerships across the scientific front and they have got a huge number of higher education institutions, they also have obviously the same sort of environmental concerns as we do in London, how do you tackle air quality – these are things we’re working on together.

DM: But the point is, the only reason that I’m banging on about it is the point is frankly they are too mighty for us not to do business with and we have to ignore their appalling record on human rights and democracy. We lecture smaller countries about it but we can’t do that to China.

BORIS JOHNSON: Well look, I think I’ve now said this, this is the fifth time, I’m coming up for air again, Dermot, I’m just repeating that it’s not my job as Mayor to insert myself into controversial areas of international dispute. My job is to promote the interests of the city and you’ll see an intensifying partnership, as I say, between London and Beijing and …

DM: But you write for a national newspaper and you comment on international affairs all the time.

BORIS JOHNSON: There’s lots to talk about whatever I may or may not write in newspapers, I am here to talk about what is happening now between London and Beijing and it is an extraordinary story of the intensification of relationships and let’s face it, Dermot, this is a country that is growing at a huge rate. There has been a bit of a slow down perhaps but it is still growing at what, 7 or 8% a year. They urgently need the ideas, the technology, that perhaps we have in the UK, there are things that we can offer, perhaps there are some things that we can help with on some of the environmental concerns for instance, they are certainly interested in some of the plans that we’ve got to sell. There are big, big partnerships to develop and I think most people would accept it would be remiss of us as a city authority not to do that. And I make one other point which is I think people also say, all these Chinese investors coming into London, is it really good for our city, is it really good for Londoners to have this avalanche, this bow wave of money coming from China and other overseas countries? And I would say yes because that investment enables us to get off the ground developments that otherwise would be completely stalled, Dermot, we would have not a chance with redeveloping the Royal Albert Docks or rebuilding the Crystal Palace or whatever it is, were it not for the drive and interest of some of our partners overseas.

DM: Just let me ask you about something you were mentioning, you say you are very keen for Chinese people to come to London, more about foreigners coming to London – and you are free to comment about this I know as Mayor of London – and this is specifically concerning Romanians. You will be aware of the figures from the Metropolitan Police, 27,000 serious crimes committed by Romanians in London over five years. There are only 87,000 Romanians they estimate in the UK and these crimes include 142 rapes, 10 murders and 666 sex crimes. This is among the Metropolitan Police, are you afraid, worried about a crime wave reaching us, reaching London in 2014?

BORIS JOHNSON: Before you scare everybody too much, Dermot, I should just remind our viewers that actually crime in London is well down across all sectors you describe, all the crime types you describe, particularly murder.

DM: Are you aware of this, Mr Mayor?

BORIS JOHNSON: Yes, of course I am aware of the statistics that you describe but that is something that the Met is working on very, very closely with the police authorities in the country of provenance, in Romania itself and yes, we are tackling it but I wouldn’t want people to think that somehow or other the figures that you describe are leading to some overall upsurge in crime, it simply isn’t the case but the Met are certainly well aware of the problem that you describe, Dermot, and we are on it.

DM: We’re not suggesting that, it’s just a specific community and presumably more of them will be arriving in 2014 when most of the transitional controls are lifted. This is a shocking statistic, Romanians, the Met estimates, are responsible for 92% of all crime at cashpoints in Britain – 92%.

BORIS JOHNSON: I have to say, Dermot, that I’m aware of the problem and obviously we are dealing with it. Also you have to be very cautious that you don’t start using language and an approach that demonises one particular nationality or community or another. I do want to see this problem cracked down on and yes, indeed, we are certainly aware of the issues that will be arising come January 1st when obviously the rules change but this is still a country and a society, the UK is a country and a society that over a long period has benefitted from having talented people coming to work there. Now for my money you should have to work there quite a long time before you are entitled to the benefits, that’s a vagary of EU law as you know. In an ideal world perhaps things wouldn’t be ordered in that way but that’s a matter of principle, I wouldn’t want to see it specifically related to any country or community. Yes, indeed I am aware of the problems that you describe, frankly I would have liked to have seen a much longer derogation applied to the accession countries for the purposes of receiving benefits when they come here. That ship has unfortunately sailed. It may be, Dermot, that that is something that could be considered by the government for the renegotiation of the Treaty, the European Treaty that is about to come up. That might well be a very sensible thing for us to ask for in those negotiations but we have no control over the time lapse between arrival in this country to work and the ability to withdraw benefits.

DM: Last question, about the citizens of London and your full focus you say on being Mayor of London, does that change in 2015? You say you haven’t made your mind up about whether you stand to become an MP on 2015, did you think about that on the flight over? Can you tell us are you going to stand, are you going to tell the people of London that you are going to stand for Parliament in 2015?

BORIS JOHNSON: You asked about fifteen different questions there and my answer is the same to all of them – my job is to represent to the best of my ability the people of London, to advance as far as I can the cause of economic prosperity in our city. I’ve got a mandate that expires in May 2016 and I’m going to fulfil it.

DM: One question, will you stand in 2015 for an MP?

BORIS JOHNSON: I’ve given you my answer. In fact if you want to have the same answer again like on every other thing I’m more than happy to do it, Dermot, but that is the reality. Being Mayor is the most extraordinary job I think in British politics and I have no intention of relinquishing it before my time is up. Londoners gave me four years in May 2012 which was pretty extraordinary, I think it was pretty extraordinary that they gave me four years in 2008. It would be crazy to give up the job of being Mayor of London early, it is an absolutely wonderful job to do.

DM: Okay Mr Mayor, thank you very much. Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London.