Labour should commit to rejoining EU at next general election, Sadiq Khan says

Sadiq Khan pushed further than his previous position advocating the UK rejoining the single market and customs union (Picture: EPA)

Labour should go into the next general election with a pledge to rejoin the European Union,Sir Sadiq Khan has said.

The Mayor of London argued that Brexit has caused massive damage to the British economy in the six years since the UK left the bloc.

He has previously advocated Labour reentering the customs union and single market with the EU,but his new comments go a step further.

Speaking to Italian newspaper La Repubblica,Khan said: ‘We should,as a Labour Party,fight the next general election with a clear manifesto commitment,a vote for Labour means we would rejoin the European Union. I think it’s inevitable.’

The move could be made without holding a second referendum on the issue,he suggested.

Khan’s intervention comes days after Chancellor Rachel Reeves counted a closer relationship with the EU as one of her three biggest opportunities for growth.

Speaking at the annual Mais Lecture on Tuesday,she said: ‘Britain’s future prosperity will not be built in isolation,but through partnerships with those who share our interests,share our values,and share our ambitions.

‘And no partnership is more important than that between the UK and our European neighbours.’

David Lammy has said Brexit ‘badly damaged our economy’ (Picture: Brook Mitchell/AFP via Getty Images)

However,Labour ruled out any return to the customs union,single market,or freedom of movement in its 2024 election manifesto,saying it would avoid ‘reopening the divisions of the past’.

Downing Street has since described these as its ‘red lines’ on the EU – even after Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy suggested on a podcast last December that his party’s policy on the bloc could change.

In an appearance on The News Agents,Lammy said it was ‘self-evident’ that the economy had been damaged by Brexit and ‘created serious friction’.

When asked about rejoining a customs union,he said: ‘That’s not currently our policy,that’s not currently where we are.’

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Responding to those comments at the time,a No 10 spokesman pointed to individual trade deals the UK had made with the US and India which would not have been possible within the EU.

But a source close to Khan told Metro the Mayor believes this argument was undermined by Donald Trump’s decision to start the war in Iran and his capricious use of punitive tariffs.

The President’s behaviour demonstrated the US is ‘not a reliable partner’,they said.

In her lecture on Tuesday,Reeves said the trade deals were ‘extremely welcome and beneficial’ but were not a cure-all for the UK economy.

She said: ‘No trade deal with any individual nation can outweigh the importance of our relationship to a bloc with which we share a land border,with which our supply chains are closely intertwined,and it accounts for almost half our trade.’

Why is Sadiq Khan making this intervention now?

Metro‘s Senior Political Reporter Craig Munro explains what made the Mayor of London speak up about the EU.Sir Keir Starmer has made no secret of his intention to secure a new,closer relationship with Europe.The Chancellor’s words on Tuesday were perhaps the clearest indication yet of just how valuable the government considers this to be.So why did Khan think this was the right moment to speak up?It’s understood there were two big factors in his decision – one economic and one political.The first is based on research suggesting London has been particularly badly hit by the impact of Brexit,with Khan saying the economy would have grown by an additional 10% if the UK hadn’t left the EU.And the second is Donald Trump’s war in Iran. Of course,there’s famously no love lost between the Mayor and the President – the latter often rants about the former completely unprompted.But the fallout from the Middle East conflict (and maybe going back a little further to the Greenland crisis in January) allows Khan to paint the US leader as a source of instability.As for pushing further than his previous position of joining the customs union and single market,the Mayor appears to have decided the UK should not just be a ‘rule taker’.He told La Repubblica: ‘It’s like you being a member of a tennis club paying your dues,and then somebody else comes along and uses the court whatever they likes,and they’re not a member. That’s not fair.‘And so don’t be surprised if those that were in the tennis club ask for additional fees. Why pay additional fees? Why not be part of the club?’Khan also addressed recent comments made by shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy in his La Repubblica interview.Writing on X on Tuesday,Timothy described Muslims marking the end of Ramadan by praying in London’s Trafalgar Square as an ‘act of domination’ and ‘straight from the Islamist playbook’.At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday,Tory leader Kemi Badenoch defended her frontbencher by saying he was ‘defending British values’.The Mayor said Trafalgar Square had also hosted events to mark Christian,Jewish,Hindu,and Sikh religious festivals.He added: ‘I’m heartbroken,I’m sad,I’m angry,and I can understand why many British Muslims are scared by somebody who is so senior,who wants to be the Lord Chancellor,saying what he said.‘But worryingly,his leader,somebody wants to be the prime minister,Kemi Badenoch,think it is British values to single out Muslims. It is British values to respect each other.’Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at .