Dimsum: What do you know about the needs of the Chinese community, and how do you propose to address them?

Katz: The Chinese community is in a unique position in many ways, because of Chinatown's location and the fact that it is such an integral part of the London's tourist economy. Within a national context, many of their needs are similar to minority and working class needs up and down the country - better schools, better social services, better public transport, better health services. One of the most fundamental differences between Labour and the Conservatives in this election is that Labour is committed to putting money into public services - is starting to do so, will continue this. The Conservatives are committed to cutting £20 billion from them.

There are obviously problems that are unique to the Chinese community, and the recent foot and mouth crisis is one. I fully support calls for an enquiry after the unfortunate briefing that came out of MAFF and I am unhappy that the ministry has failed to comply with the deadline that they set for themselves. I would obviously take action on that as soon as the new government is formed.

Dimsum: In terms of the foot and mouth controversy, how closely will you be working with the Chinese Civil Rights Action Group in solving the problems we have identified?

Katz: I have already met Jabez Lam (Chair of CCRAG) on a couple of occasions and I have to say good luck with them. This is not just political with a party slant. These constituents have been affected, there is probably the greatest concentration of Chinese restaurants per square metre in Chinatown, and, as their MP, I would have a fundamental duty to ensure that the government was working for them and they were getting the answers they wanted. It wouldn't matter what government was in power.

I would like to highlight that there is a large chance that MAFF will be scrapped and another organisation will be set up to separate consumers and producers, and it's not a department of government that works very well. Therefore it is understandable that given the pressure they were under, what happened. That's not giving an excuse, it's just trying to explain it.

Dimsum: One of the more specific problems experienced by the Chinese and more specifically the Chinese catering industry, is the amount of racial abuse experienced in takeaways and restaurants. How do you propose to address this problem?

Katz: At the meeting it was reported that the Met went into Chinese and Indian restaurants and looked into racial abuse and collected intelligence, looking to see if it was a viable operation. Hopefully they will be taking that on. It is something in civilised society that we just can't stand for.

If we want prevent the MET from being an institutionally racist organisation and cut out institutional racism, we have to be very firm: attitudes have to be changed.

Dimsum: Do you feel will that there any new measures that can be enforced to combat police incompetence and indifference towards this problem?

Katz: It's down to better and more community liaison. As an organisation, the MET is making steps to address the points that the Stephen Lawrence report made, but that takes time. One way forward is to recruit more people from ethnic minorities. The Chinatown police liaison group is a very effective forum - where they discussed the May disruptions where there were clear outlines of what was being down.

Dimsum: Would you and how would you promote multicultural education with a particular view to the Chinese community?

Katz: It's interesting that we have schools like Soho Parish school in the heart of the Westend and Chinatown. I'm governor of a school in Millbank which has a very large ethnic minority ratio. It's about having respect for other peoples' cultures and luckily at this school there is a mixture of ethnic groups. It's very healthy, and hopefully the education of children will mean that in twenty years time, this will be a historical discussion. Education is very important and the government are changing the curriculum to introduce a Citizenship course starting in the autumn. This will help as people say that Chinese political participation is very low, and this will help educated the Chinese children on the importance on the political system and political participation.

Dimsum: Would you approve of facilities for Chinese children to uphold their culture and upbringing through, say mandarin or Cantonese lessons?

Katz: I support the community completely in wanting to uphold more traditional aspects of their community through education. But it is also very interesting to let other children know about other cultures - say the differences between Mandarin and Cantonese, and other dialect groups. Both in terms of the cirriculum and in terms of after school lessons and more informal community based activities.

For instance, in areas that are not doing very well, having afternoon homework clubs, summer schools where children can mix play work in a more informal setting. This could be good as Chinese children could have their regular circular subjects as well as more traditional studies such as calligraphy. What would be nice is that children from other ethnicities are involved in that as well. We all have a lot to learn from each other and Westminster has always been a melting pot.

Dimsum: The dispersal policy of asylum seekers is at crisis stage and has proved to be a failure when it was applied to the Vietnamese Chinese community in the 80's. How would you ensure that community support and legal advice are adequately provided to asylum seekers?

Katz: There is a balance that needs to be achieved that relieves legitimate pressure off councils like Kent and London where they are the obvious places to go being ports of entry. If there are more than enough numbers than can be coped with, it's actually about providing a quality of life for the asylum seekers whilst their cases are being processed. With the numbers of people coming in, there isn't the accommodation available and it would be better for them to be in a nice flat in the north of England rather than a cramped B &B in Westminster. They need to be dispersed in a sensitive manner, so that they go to communities where there are people of the same ethnicity or certainly not people of an opposing ethnicity.

In terms of the legal aid question - to set up a community legal service that advises.

Dimsum: Do you think more money needs to be put into this then?

Katz: If you want a faster system you have to make sure that people have access to legal aid. I'm personally in favour of simplifying the form

Dimsum: But apparently people have to answer the asylum application in English within 14 days. Does that not make the application a lot harder?

Katz: But we're still trying to reform the system, there are many problems such as the computer system breaking down, and these things with the best will in the world you can't avoid. As we carry on reform, we need to have a simpler form and one in different languages. I'm also in favour of dropping the voucher system. There is a review plan - I'm sorry we haven't had this already, hopefully one good thing as a result of the delay is that I will be elected as MP and lobby the government very heavily to drop the vouchers.

This is a balance - as a candidate you have to balance the needs of the Government with the need of the constituents, and try and make changes that help the system work more effectively. One thing we're not saying is that all asylum seekers are going to be rounded up and put in a detention centre.

Dimsum: But your policy is still to deport?

Katz: If people are claiming asylum because they are running away - there is a difference between seeking asylum and economic migration and I think it's time to have a more mature debate about the difference between the two. In that there are people coming over here with skills that we could use in the public and private sector and there are unskilled people. I think Lawrence Wong was quite wrong yesterday in saying that we are going to cherry pick. What I'm saying is that asylum seeking is about running from oppression from your government, your life is in danger and you particularly need to get out of that country now. Economic migration is that you're local economy is very depressed, resources are scarce, you may well be living under a regime that is dicatorial, but your life is not at risk. I understand this - this is what my family said generations ago. In terms of asylum seeking per se, we have to find a way to find out whether people are valid asylum seekers or not. If people come and don't want to claim asylum, that is fair enough, but there has to be a way for judging whether they are right or wrong.

I would like to add that I am very pleased that the Chinatown association had its hustings and Dimsum is showing an interest. It's important for communities to use their resources, but it's also getting the most out of things. Purely from what I hear, some people are of the opinion that Chinese people, maybe of an older generation, are less likely to be involved, but if there is a way of getting people more involved and active then that's brilliant.