ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Ed Miliband is expected this week to launch a fresh attack on Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, as the Labour leader tries to capitalise on discomfort among Liberal Democrat supporters in the run up to the local elections. Labour have been buoyed by recent polls which showed a 13 point lead over the Conservatives and let’s say a very good morning to Shadow Justice Secretary, Sadiq Khan. First of all just a reflection on the Bahraini Grand Prix, would you like to see that cancelled given the situation in the country?

SADIQ KHAN: I would have done. Given the level of violence taking place in Bahrain, the civil unrest, we have now had reports of a death and people being injured, I’d have liked to have seen the F1 council not taking place in Bahrain this year as it was last year.

DM: We’ve been discussing, you may have seen, with the Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke, reform of the European Court of Human Rights. You’ve been looking at that very closely I know, do you think you really got anything out of that Brighton conference?

SQ: Look forget what Sadiq Khan says, if you listen to the President of the European Court Nicholas Bratza, he actually said no real changes had been made.

DM: Ken Clarke said he had been misquoted.

SQ: Well he would say that wouldn’t he? If you speak to lawyers involved in this field, professors in London and elsewhere, they have used the word ‘tinkering’, so what we have as an example, Dermot, of the Prime Minister going to Strasbourg earlier this year, you remember I was on your programme the Sunday afterwards, throwing red meat to his backbenchers saying he was going to make radical change to the European Court of Human Rights and completely change the way cases go to the European Court, change the rules on admissibility, bring in a new screening process in this country and not in Strasbourg and three months on, as we predicted, there has been no real change.

DM: But would you like to see those changes made because of course in power you liked it the way it was?

SQ: No, that’s not the case, in power we did begin the process of reform of the European Court. There is an issue about the backlog of cases, there are currently 150,000 cases waiting to be assessed by the European Court, that needs to be addressed. We are concerned about sometimes the European court doesn’t recognise each country of those 47 countries is different and there should be a recognition of the margin of appreciation. We also have been quite critical in the past and currently as well about the quality of some of those judges, there was an issue about some of those judges which needs to be addressed and none of those points were addressed by the declaration in Brighton earlier this week.

DM: And the on-going issue of Abu Qatada who of course languished in prison for quite a long time under Labour, he’s still here and as Ken Clarke was saying, looks like he is going to be here for quite a while longer.

SQ: Yes, we’ve seen in the last few weeks, Dermot, you’ve reported about the last few weeks, a number of things this government has done where there is an appearance that they are motivated by party politics and politicking rather than the substance so for example we had the Chancellor’s budget, more interested with cheap headlines rather than improving the quality of life for all of Great Britain, we had the situation where Francis Maude ridiculously was almost creating a run on petrol by trying to engineer even further a dispute between those who drive the trucks and others as well and we’ve seen this week almost theatre being created on the Tuesday with the television cameras, they should show Abu Qatada had been arrested so the Home Secretary could go to parliament and give the impression of being a very tough and competent Home Secretary but within 24 hours that had all unravelled. What I’d say is this, look, these are all important issues and it’s right that Qatada is extradited as soon as possible but you should be concerned about legal process and about doing it competently rather than creating great TV for Sky, the BBC or others.

DM: Well relate all that, everything you just described there, the litany, some would call it the foot shooting that the government has been getting up to, to Labour’s popularity. Is it because they’re messing up or because people are more interested in your message and your leader?

SQ: Well the classic mistake we would make as a party in opposition is to assume we can win the next general election because this government is incompetent, and they are. What we need to do is persuade your viewers, is to persuade the British public who deserted us in May 2010 in record numbers, that we are a party not simply fit to properly scrutinise this government but also to have an alternative platform to form a government. I don't think we can win the next general election by this government’s incompetence, we need to win it by showing the country that we are competent and I think we have started the process under Ed Miliband.

DM: Okay, and London incredibly important to Labour, it’s important to both parties of course given the stature of the two main candidates. Is Ken Livingstone becoming a bit of an embarrassment to Labour, particularly because of his tax arrangements?

SQ: Well no. I think what we’d like to see in any election is the public looking at the party’s policies and the parties rather than the personalities and the reality is that Boris Johnson is a very formidable personality. Ken Livingstone is a formidable politician who has got a policy manifesto for what he wants to see taking place in London over the next four years. Over the course of his eight years he had a very successful track record, huge investment in our buses, huge investment in our Tubes, helping win the Olympics, introducing the congestion charge, record number of police officers and what I’d like my fellow Londoners to do over the course of the next couple of weeks is look at the manifestos that both main candidates are standing on before you decide who to vote for. Ken has paid all the taxes he is supposed to pay, he is not an embarrassment to Labour. Many Londoners are really pleased he’s the Labour candidate.

DM: In your heart of hearts, I mean we know that Labour and Ken Livingstone haven’t always seen eye to eye, after all for goodness sake, when you didn’t select him the first time round he stood on his own and Labour are backing him because you think he might win rather than Labour backing him because he really espouses all the core Labour values.

SQ: Labour is backing him backing him because Labour members in London chose Ken Livingstone to be our candidate and we think he is the best person to be the Mayor of London for the next four years. We think Londoners should look at the policies of Boris Johnson if he should win the election on May 3^rd, they should look at his track record over the last three, four years, record numbers of police officers lost, record increases in our Tubes and buses and the number one priority of Boris Johnson over the last 20 months has been to secure a tax cut for the most wealthiest rather than investing in those who are the poorest in London.

DM: Do you think it’s that issue, because that’s arising out of the budget as well, do you think that’s playing on the doorsteps throughout the country in the local elections, is that what you’re hearing back?

SQ: It is. The two big issues on the doorsteps are police numbers and Tube fares. Most Londoners who use the Tubes and the buses to get to work, three million people a day who use our Tubes are having real difficulty paying the Tube fares which have been caused by Boris Johnson increasing them at record levels.

DM: Okay, Sadiq Khan, thank you very much indeed. The Shadow Justice Secretary there.