Brexit to take centre stage in battle for London

London is set to become the first battleground over Labour’s push to undo the damage caused by Brexit, with the likely Tory candidate for mayor Sir James Cleverly saying he is ready to fight plans to rejoin.

With Sir Sadiq focussing on Brexit and renewing his demands for the UK to rejoin at last week’s Labour Party conference – coupled by Mr Burnham signalling that rejoin could be in the next general election manifesto – Sir James insisted he was ready to front up the Tory position of supporting the status quo.

The London mayoral election is coming up in May 2028 and will be a dry run for a general election in 2029 if Mr Burnham sticks to his promise of not calling an early poll.

Sir James was a Brexiteer in the 2016 referendum but supported Theresa May’s attempts to compromise with the European Union. In the 2016 referendum, seven of the 10 areas with the highest share of the vote for Remain were in London, including Lambeth, Hackney and Haringey, all of which polled over 75 per cent to stay in the EU.

Speaking to The Independent ahead of the Conservative Party conference this week, Sir James, a former foreign secretary and home secretary, claimed any push to rejoin the EU would damage London’s interests.

He argued that restrictive EU regulation on artificial intelligence and tech would harm the capital.

“The UK is the world's third largest hub for AI development because we have a different regulatory regime to the EU,” he said. “So, if you're happy to basically kill off London's tech sector...”

Sir James also claimed Labour were taking a “contradictory” approach to Brexit.

“It's only a few weeks ago that John Healey said the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) – the kind of the Asia Pacific trading bloc – was going to be one of the most transformational economic events.

“So, if we were to rejoin the EU, we would have to tear it up. Labour on one hand are saying ‘this is brilliant, this is transformational’... but then flirting with the idea of tearing up AI, for example.

“Now you can love it or you hate it – but it is a fact of life, and it is really important.”

Supporters of rejoin point out that the UK is losing billions in exports for being separated from its biggest trading partner.The Independent has led the campaign for Britain to rebuild its relationship with Brussels on the basis of clear evidence that it has damaged the economy and failed to deliver promised benefits on a wide range of issues including immigration.

Sir Tony Blair recently sparked a fresh debate calling for the UK rejoin in the next decade while a report by the respected Institute for Public Policy for the Regions (IPPR) said the UK was losing £6.5bn in exports alone to the EU because of a lack of mutual recognition on product testing.

Logistics UK, which represents transporters of goods, has pointed to a shortfall in more than £11bn a year in exports because of Brexit.

But Sir James also raised questions over Labour’s ability to negotiate a good re-entry into the EU.

He claimed: “This Labour government has shown an inability to negotiate a good deal, quite out of all recognition.

“You look at the Erasmus student travel arrangement with the EU. The Labour government renegotiated that it was more expensive for fewer students, and almost all the benefit was for EU students rather than British students – and they regarded that as a great success.

“The point I'm making is that Andy Burnham is desperately trying to be popular. He is willing to say whatever he thinks he needs to say to harvest some short-term popularity.”

Mr Burnham said a year ago that he wanted the UK to rejoin the EU and then at the Labour Party conference warned Brexit had created “more harm than good” claiming it had led to “a decade of drift and division.”

Speaking to the BBC he quoted an interview former Tory chancellor George Osborne gave to The Independent as a reason to change.

He said: “We could look at what (former Conservative chancellor) George Osborne has said about a customs union, we could look at what the Liberal Democrats said at their conference about the single market – or we could go all the way.”

He later suggested it is “possible” Labour’s next election manifesto could include an in-out referendum or even a pledge to rejoin the EU.

Sir Sadiq has also signalled his willingness to make Brexit a London issue in the mayoral election.

Commenting on Mr Burnham’s leader’s speech in Liverpool in an article for The Guardian, he wrote: “Perhaps most encouraging of all was the prime minister’s promise to rethink Britain’s relationship with the EU.

“Burnham is right – and the reality of the vote’s impact on the UK is sobering. Research commissioned by City Hall in 2024 showed that London’s economy was £30bn smaller than it would have been without Brexit and that there were nearly 2m fewer jobs overall in the UK as a result of us leaving. Earlier this year, we set out new analysis showing that our country has grown more slowly than our comparable European counterparts since 2016.

“If that trend continues, our economy could be £250bn smaller than similar EU countries’ by 2030.”

But Sir James was dismissive of Sir Sadiq’s stance, claiming the mayor and Labour are using Brexit to distract from their own shortcomings.

He complained: “Sadiq Khan wants to keep rowing about an event from 10 years ago, because in the intervening 10 years, he's got nothing to be proud of.”