ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: If the world does wake up to President Romney on Wednesday morning, how will that affect Britain’s relationship with the United States and how would a future Labour government work with such a relatively right-wing administration? Well in a moment I’ll speak to the Shadow Foreign Secretary, Douglas Alexander, he also spent some time observing the Democratic political machine in action for himself during the summer so I’ll be asking him what he learnt from that as well. Let’s say a very good morning then to the Shadow Foreign Secretary, Douglas Alexander, who joins me from Westminster. First of all, as I said in that introduction, Mr Alexander, you presumably would prefer it to be President Obama again but could you work with a President Romney?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER: Well good morning Dermot. Of course the choice is for America but the consequences will be felt by us all. When Governor Romney came to London back in July, along with Ed Miliband our leader, I met with the Governor for about forty minutes and we had a very professional, business-like conversation about a range of challenges which frankly will be the same whether it is Governor Romney who’s the President on Wednesday morning or President Obama is re-elected, so there are common challenges which will face either of the contenders if they find themselves in the White House after America makes its choice.

DM: Okay, well let’s talk through some of those common challenges. On your patch of course there is international affairs and where I’m standing the big thing they’re all talking about is of course the economy which affects us all.

DA: Of course, I think that is probably top of the agenda on both sides of the Atlantic, for the American economy to keep growing is vital for the health of the global economy and as the eurozone and the European economy tries to recover, so we’ve got a huge stake in seeing the American economy continue to deliver private sector jobs and to sustain the growth that we have seen in recent months and indeed in recent years under President Obama.

DM: But it is interesting, isn’t it, what you say about the economy because in a way in the United States the debate is as polarised as to what to do as it is in the United Kingdom. You have President Obama, the incumbent, who has used huge stimulus packages, continuing the borrowing, the debt and the deficit go up and Governor Romney now saying well that’s gone too far, we have to try a different approach. Does that have implications for how Labour poses its economic policy?

DA: I had the chance to meet Larry Summers, one of the Obama’s previously top economic advisors, just last week in Boston myself and he was at pains to emphasise just how divergent the paths of the British economy and the American economy has been. Both economies were facing the risk of a depression when we saw the collapse of Lehmann Brothers but unlike the United Kingdom, the United States chose a different path. They delivered an economic stimulus, that’s why they have now seen three years of economic growth, albeit that it’s been at a low level, and he drew a very sharp and painful contrast with what we’ve seen in the United Kingdom where we’ve just suffered three quarters of negative economic growth, we’ve had a flatlining economy for a year so in that sense you are right to recognise the debate has been polarised between within the United States and within the United Kingdom but observers of the choice of economic strategy don’t look very kindly on the judgement that was reached by George Osborne and David Cameron when they compare it with what was decided by the Obama administration in the United States.

DM: But that leads me back to my opening questions, doesn’t it? From what you said there on the economics, you would prefer a President Obama, his economic approach is one, okay with very big differences, but broadly is one that Labour is prescribing for the United Kingdom. Mitt Romney, look at his running mate, Paul Ryan is talking about large cuts, attacking that deficit aggressively, something you accuse the coalition government of doing too much of.

DA: Well it’s not for me to write the Republican economic programme and you’re right to recognise that there are fundamental differences of approach between not just the approach taken by the Republicans against the Democrats but also between those approaches and those that have been taken here in the United Kingdom but I do think most commentators believe that if you’re going to see America deal with its deficit you certainly need economic growth but you also need to deal with the issue of taxation. America is facing what’s called the fiscal cliff towards the end of this year and there will be very sharp choices for the incoming President in terms of whether to see taxes rise for those at the very top of the United States income levels. My recollection is Republicans in the Senate and in the Congress haven’t voted for tax rises since 1990. Now that certainly is a very different approach to the approach that we took when we were in government with a balance approach delivering both economic growth and fiscal consolidation. To be fair to the Conservatives in the United Kingdom it’s even a different approach from the one that they adopted in their July 2010 economic budget which we’ve seen so much damage as a result of.

DM: Tell me what lessons you learnt in terms of campaigning when you observed the Democrat party machine when you were over here in the summer with David Miliband.

DA: Well I was there in the summer and I was in Boston just last week actually so it was a further opportunity to update myself. Firstly, one of the paradoxes of this campaign has been that Obama won the Presidency four years ago with soaring rhetoric of hope and change and yet even many of his strongest supporters are struggling to understand why, despite the tough economy, he hasn’t been able to close down this election before the last 48 hours and they suggest that notwithstanding the real achievements that he’s had, it’s been that he hasn’t been able to characterise the future for the United States as clearly as many of them had expected. So one lesson that I draw from this election already is the centrality of defining your message, of knowing not just how to account for what you’ve done but where you want to take the country and the choices that you want to make. Secondly …

DM: I just wanted to add in there the issue of the constituency you’re addressing. Of course we’ve had Romney’s comment about 47% of the nation are not going to vote for him so he is not going to bother with them, is that where Ed Miliband’s one nation speech to the conference came from, that you can’t write off sections of the country?

DA: Well it was in direct contradiction to the idea that you slice and dice the electorate into sectors or classes. Labour has always won in the United Kingdom when we have spoken for the whole country and seek to be a party that appeals for forty million votes and not four or five million votes and I think Ed was exactly right on that. A couple of other changes and differences from the United States, one is just the sheer volume of money. Both candidates in the United States have now spent in excess of a billion dollars on their campaign. Every time I see those numbers rise I thank the Lord that we don’t have a similar political system in the United Kingdom. I think to try and get that big money out of politics, it would be beneficial for the United States and I’m absolutely delighted that we’ve never seen anything on that scale in the United Kingdom. The final point I would make is even four years ago, despite the tremendous innovations in the Obama campaign, quite a lot of social media was in its infancy. Twitter was not as widely used four years ago, Facebook was popular but nothing like as popular as it’s proven today. I think when historians look back on this election to understand the mechanics of campaigning, they’ll see this really as the first social media election and that’s why I think it’s incumbent on British political parties to embrace social media far more fully than they have to date and I think that will be one of the lessons that they draw out of this campaign in the United States.

DM: And I mentioned David Miliband being here with you, do you think it whetted his appetite witnessing up close and personal the most formidable political machine in the world, notwithstanding the amount of money spent? Do you think it whetted his appetite to get back into front line politics? Of course he is writing with his brother today about a living wage.

DA: Well he is writing with Dave Prentice in the Observer today. He put in a performance on Question Time on Thursday which I think showed once again what a big contribution he’s got to make to British politics but he’s made very clear that he doesn’t regard the front bench as being the front line, he’s getting on with supporting Labour in constituencies across the country and ultimately any question of his return would firstly and appropriately be a matter for Ed, as the leader of our party, and then for David, and it is not really for me to judge either of those decisions.

DM: Okay, lastly, you want to move on obviously to international affairs. Do you have fears of a more aggressive approach, particularly to Iran and the Middle East from a President Romney after what he said in the summer to the Israelis about an attack on Iran?

DA: I think if I’m honest there is some uncertainty as to whether President Romney would adopt the same approach as candidate Romney. I was in Boston for the final presidential debate that focused on foreign affairs and somebody said to me there was violent agreement between the two candidates on the issue of Iran. Romney was at pains to emphasise that he wanted to see a diplomatic resolution to this crisis, now if that represents a significant embrace of a diplomatic solution I welcome that because I think that’s what the world needs and in that sense, let’s wait and see what approach President Romney would take if it turns out that he is elected on Tuesday. If it turns out that President Obama is re-elected on Tuesday then I hope that he similarly will continue to pursue the tightening of sanctions on Iran but be clear that it needs to be a twin-track approach, on the one hand tightening sanctions to incentivise them to discuss and debate the issue and on the other hand, to embrace serious negotiations about the way forward in relation to the nuclear programme.

DM: Okay Mr Alexander, thank you very much indeed. Douglas Alexander, the Shadow Foreign Secretary there.