Labour 'must apologise' says former aide to Gordon Brown The MP, who recently finished a series of a dozen public meetings in his Dudley North seat to ask people about immigration, also argued that British people should also find it much harder to claim welfare, to encourage them to compete with migrants for work. "When I say these things, people are surprised to hear an MP saying it," he said, and conceded that some of the surprise came from hearing a Labour MP taking a hard line on immigration. "It's not a revelation to say that we are not universally trusted on this issue," he added. We have to work hard to persuade people on this. I don't want to be seen as criticising Yvette [Cooper, the shadow home secretary] or anyone. Labour has always had to work hard to be trusted on this issue. Mr Austin was part of Mr Brown's inner circle during the years of tension with Tony Blair. He became an MP in his home town in 2005 but remained close to Mr Brown. As a Treasury adviser, he was present when the Blair government made the decision to allow people from new members of the European Union to enter Britain freely. It was a mistake. I said so at the time. I did not think it was the right thing to do," he added. What we have to do now is understand people's concerns and come up with ideas that will address that. Mr Austin last year resigned from Labour's front bench, apparently unwilling to serve as a shadow minister under his former Treasury colleague, Mr Miliband. He insisted that there was no falling out with the Labour leader, whom he described as "doing a good job." His positions on immigration and welfare would be quite normal in the Conservative Party, but he pointed out that Rachel Reeves, the shadow work and pensions secretary had talked about a "contributions-based" welfare system and Ms Cooper has talked about tighter borders. He added: "I am not here to say this is Labour policy. I am here to say, people in Dudley have raised this issue, it's my job to say something about this. The UK Independence Party is eating into Labour's traditional working-class vote in places like Dudley, which Mr Austin holds by a majority of barely 600 over the Tories. Ukip's rise shows that both the big parties are struggling to convince on immigration, Mr Austin added. Mr Miliband is said to calculate that a Ukip surge next year is ultimately in Labour's interest, with some of his aides suggesting that if Ukip wins more than 9 per cent of the vote next year, a Conservative majority becomes impossible. But Mr Austin was not persuaded, saying: "I'm not going to say, 9 per cent of the electorate, forget about them... What sort of strategy is that?" Mr Miliband, he added "won't be prime minister if we don't win Dudley North."