Well said, that man. Sadiq Khan has issued an impassioned rallying call for his colleagues in government this weekend, imploring Andy Burnham to bite the bullet and rejoin the EU after the next General Election.
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Bullish Sadiq Khan urges Labour to ‘rejoin the EU after the next election’
Writing for The Observer, the Mayor of London cited recent opinion polls which show a swell of support for the UK to rejoin the EU, with the number of people still backing Brexit now dwindling noticeably. Young voters in particular are keen to ‘reverse’ Brexit.
The UK voted to leave the EU in June 2016, before officially withdrawing in January 2020. In the six years since the acrimonious split from our largest trading partner, it has been the furthest thing from success one could imagine – and those ‘sunlit uplands’ remain emphatically shaded.
Ahead of a major Parliamentary debate about Brexit’s economic impact next month, research materials made available to MPs outline the significant economic damage caused by the move. Some estimates state GDP is down 8%, with the OBR claiming trade has taken a whopping 15% hit.
With all this in mind, Sadiq Khan has gone in hard on the failed Brexit experiment. He has stated his desire for the UK to rejoin both the customs union AND the single market during the current Parliamentary term, and aim for full EU reintegration after the next election.
“It’s now clearer than ever that walking away from our largest trading partner and nearest neighbours has been the biggest act of economic self-harm in the history of our country. We should therefore seek to rejoin both the customs union and the single market this parliamentary term.”
“The government should also say that we would rejoin the EU after the next general election – effectively putting rejoin on the ballot paper and letting the British people decide. Support to rejoin will only grow in the years ahead. So I encourage the government to be bold on this issue…” | Sadiq Khan
London Mayor declares Brexit arguments are done – as Leave lies ‘exposed’
Khan went on to state that ‘any deal’ to rejoin the EU is better than the hard Brexit we are currently enduring, and believes that the UK could end up on fairly agreeable terms with the trading bloc, as it would be ‘in the best interests of both sides’.
The Labour stalwart coldly dismissed fears about ‘reopening old arguments’ and causing division, simply insisting that the empirical evidence has already settled the debate and that the most prominent lies from Vote Leave ‘have now been exposed’.
Good stuff. Should be on the side of a bus…
“I hear different arguments for why we should not talk about rejoining now, including from those who were staunch Remainers. One is that we don’t want to rerun the arguments of the past and divide Britain further. But we don’t need to rerun the arguments of the past – as the debate is settled.
“The damage is there for all to see and is weighing heavily in the cost pressures felt in people’s daily lives. The lies of the Leave campaign have been exposed, and it is the dire economic inheritance left by Brexit that is allowing populists to thrive and divide our communities further.” | Sadiq Khan