Sadiq Khan Urges Labour to Promise EU Rejoining in Next UK Election Amid Brexit Impact. Sadiq Khan tells Labour to run on the idea of rejoining the EU in the next election.
Because of the economic volatility produced by Donald Trump, the Mayor of London argues it would be better to go back to the EU now.
Sadiq Khan has indicated that Labour should promise to rejoin the EU in the next general election.
The mayor of London has talked a lot about joining the customs union and single market, but on Wednesday night he went even farther and said that the party should guarantee complete membership at the next election.
“We, as a Labour party, should fight the next general election with a clear manifesto promise: if you vote for Labour, we will rejoin the European Union.” He told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, “I think it’s going to happen.”
Khan said that it would be good to do it because a lot of time has passed since the vote and Donald Trump’s actions have made the economy unstable after Labour won the election in July 2024.
“President Trump is putting tariffs on friends and enemies, which is causing a lot of economic uncertainty that no one saw coming at the last general election,” he stated.
“[And] America is at war with Iran with Israel, which makes the economy even more insecure and raises the cost of living and gasoline prices. God knows what President Trump’s plan is for getting out of office and what the final game is.
“So the facts have changed. The proof has changed, thus this parliament should let us back into the single market and customs union. I know what I want.
“On the ballot paper of the next general election is a vote for Labour, a vote to rejoin the European Union, and we should be unequivocal about the benefits of the European [Union] because we’ve now seen the alternative.”
In the 2016 referendum, when David Cameron was prime minister, the UK decided to leave the EU. The UK officially left the EU in 2021.
Khan claimed he sees “the damage Brexit has done to not just London, but Londoners, the damage economically, socially, and culturally” every day.
He talked about fresh studies from the National Institute of Economic and Social studies and Goldman Sachs that said Brexit would have made the UK economy grow by another 10%.
Khan’s request is much more than what the government is saying, which is that it wants to “reset” relations with the EU. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, stated in a speech earlier this week that the UK should follow more EU laws to encourage trade and lower prices.
Reeves argued that Brexit had hurt the economy by up to 8% of GDP and made prices go up for both firms and consumers.
She said she wasn’t aiming to “turn back the clock” on Brexit, but to forge a “new and stable future relationship” with Brussels.