Radio Interview for BBC (visiting India)
| Document type: | Speeches, interviews, etc. |
|---|---|
| Venue: | Bombay |
| Source: | BBC Radio News Report 1300 18 April 1981 |
| Journalist: | Mark Tully, BBC |
| Editorial comments: | Between 1545 and 1645? MT had tea with British journalists at the Oberoi Hotel where she had just been speaking to the Bombay Chamber of Commerce. |
| Importance ranking: | Minor |
| Word count: | 256 |
| Themes: | Foreign policy (Asia), Race, immigration, nationality, Law & order |
Mrs Thatcher, in Bombay on the last full day of her visit to India, has continued to provoke widespread controversy, particularly over the British Nationality Bill. She has faced tough questioning in a television interview and been attacked in an editorial in The Times of India. The paper, normally mild in tone, claimed that she'd done more to harm race relations in Britain than any other post-war leader. Our correspondent, Mark Tully, spoke to Mrs Thatcher in Bombay, and asked her whether she'd been shocked by the strength of feeling over the Bill and the concern expressed about race relations in Britain:
[end p1]Mrs. Thatcher
No, I don't think shocked. As far as the Nationality Bill is concerned, I think some of them have got hold of the wrong end of the stick. They somehow thought that people who've been settled in Britain for a long time and been accepted for permanent settlement were going to be sent home, and that's not true. As far as race relations are concerned, I have consistently said we must reduce the numbers coming in substantially in order to keep good harmonious race-relations. And no one was more grieved than I was when we had that trouble in Brixton just a few days ago with its terrible results. I also stressed very firmly that we in Britain really must have the right to decide to whom we should give British citizenship. Every other nation in the world reserves that right. We hitherto have not defined it in the way we have now. Our conditions are reasonable, and I adhere to them most firmly.