It only takes one minute in Gravesend town centre to realise the area has an immigration problem, according to Gravesham MP Adam Holloway.

The comments came in an interview with London mayor Boris Johnson, which will be published in a campaign flyer on Monday.

He said: "More recently it seems to me completely bonkers to open up your job market, your social security, your schools and surgeries to potentially hundreds of millions of people in the EU.

"Immigration has been good for Gravesend, but the pace in recent years has been too fast. Just one minute in Gravesend's town centre ought to confirm this."

The former investigative reporter said he came face to face with the desperation of asylum seekers when making a film in France.

He said:"In another TV documentary I made in 2002, I lived undercover in the Red Cross camp in Calais, joining hundreds of people trying to come into the UK.

"I reckon 99% of them were economic migrants, coming here, using our asylum laws. Again I would do exactly the same if I were in their position but it does show how we lost control of our borders."

In the interview, Mr Holloway said he believed there were two types of immigration.

He said: “I think there are such things as good immigration and bad immigration. In the past we had wonderful immigration from the Sikh community from India.

"Mostly arriving in the 60s and 70s to work in factories, now their descendants are professionals and running businesses. These are serious British people with Sikh faith and values.”

“I’m a cross between a very diligent social worker, and a very sinful parish priest: that really is what it feels like. I reckon my office and I have helped getting on for 25,000 different people since 2005” - Adam Holloway

Among the other topics discussed by the Conservative colleagues were Mr Holloway’s life as Gravesham’s MP, the Thames Estuary airport development and his feelings on Ukip.

Mr Holloway won the Gravesham seat in 2005 by fewer than 700 votes and then again in 2010, but this time by 9,000 votes.

He will be standing for his third consecutive term in the May elections and had an interesting way of describing his role.

He said: “I’m a cross between a very diligent social worker, and a very sinful parish priest: that really is what it feels like. I reckon my office and I have helped getting on for 25,000 different people since 2005.”

Mr Holloway will be up against Labour candidate and Gravesham councillor Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi and Ukip candidate Sean Marriott in May.

Regarding the elections he said: “Nowadays, I find Ukip destructive. Here in Gravesham, good people will vote for them - but the effect will be to make the chances of the Labour guy winning much, much better.

“And by that they’re endangering the referendum that David Cameron has committed to deliver in 2017 and they’re giving the risk of a Labour-SNP government, which is completely bananas don’t you think?”

The London mayor replied he thought such an administration would be “completely deranged”.

During the interview, Mr Holloway mainly fielded the questions. However, there was a topic where the roles were reversed - an airport on the Thames Estuary at Grain.

People in Gravesham would be sure to feel the impact of the four-runway development, nicknamed ‘Boris Island’, with many concerned about the major effect it could have on the environment.

Mr Johnson said: “All I would say to the people in Gravesham, who I know have received my idea with mixed, should I say with not unmixed enthusiasm, is that it would be an absolutely unbelievable economic turbo-charge for that part of the country.

"It would drive jobs, it would drive investment and it would be something that would really allow local firms to take off.

“Yes of course there would be environmental impacts, but they could be mitigated.”