Last night I attended a reception by the City of London to welcome the opening in three years time of Britain’s first national Migration Museum which will be located in the heart of the capital.

You could not have had a better antidote to the current political antipathy to migrants whether it is from Nigel Farage’s by election and Reform council election victories or Sir Keir Starmer’s ill judged views that we are becoming a nation of strangers because of the number of people wanting to live here.

Nor could there be a bigger statement of support from the City of London in choosing the prestigious Livery Hall at London’s Guildhall to launch this. Talking to officials from the City of London at the reception it was very clear they are extremely enthusiastic about the project.

The Migration Museum project is now 10 years old. It has moved from an old fire station at the back of the Albert Embankment to an empty H & M store in Lewisham shopping centre before getting to the City. It will be a new three floor museum in a brand new building in Aldgate. This latest move has only been made possible by a superb gift from a successful property company , Dominus, set up by a refugee to the UK.

The brilliance of this museum is that it focuses on human interest stories and treats everybody as a human being – not as some bogeyman or threat to the stability of our country. And the stories and history of migration and emigration are so rich and diverse and so much part of this country that it is amazing that no such museum has been created until now to celebrate this.

Also it will not have a metropolitan bias. There are plans for pop up museums all over the country to bring the same human interest stories to the rest of Britain. It will be popular with schools visits and when it is open it is expected to attract 140,000 visitors a year plus another 100,000 on the internet.

Last night’s launch included a panel discussion with Sathnam Sanghera , David Olusoga , Es Devlin, Indhu Rubasingham mediated by BBC news presenter Reeta Chakrabarti.

You can see how enthusiastic people were from this short Youtube video from Dr Krishna Kandiah, director of the Sanctuary Foundation. He says it better than I could express it.

On the way back home from the event on the tube I noticed a couple opposite me. The young man was a typical white Englishman with dark black hair. His girlfriend was a brown Asian lady. It was quite clear they were in love. And I thought those who claim we are a nation of strangers have got it wrong. The missing ingredient is love. In such a diverse country these attempts to drive wedges between people of different races will not resonate with them. Those who want to stir up fear and loathing are on the wrong side of history. Love will conquer all.