'Why delay?' Sadiq Khan claims it is 'inevitable' UK will rejoin the EU as he issues manifesto demand to Labour

London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has claimed it is “inevitable” the UK will rejoin the European Union.

The mayor was speaking after a catastrophic local election for Labour in the capital, which left him “really angry".

Mr Khan has argued the party should adopt a more “progressive” approach to win back voters and he believes it should promise to rejoin the EU.

He said: ”It’s inevitable at some stage we’re going to rejoin the EU.

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“So why delay the inevitable? In the general election, say in plain English in the manifesto: ‘If Labour wins, we will rejoin the European Union.’

“And that is the means to a sunny uplands.”

Despite not being one of the Labour members calling for Sir Keir Starmer to be ousted as Prime Minister, Sir Keir has made it clear change is needed for his party to survive.

He told the New Statesman: “I’m not somebody calling for a change in leader, although we’ve got to change.

“But we can’t pretend that Keir Starmer was popular or an asset on the doorstep. I mean, we can’t pretend, right? Because if we do so, we can’t address the issue, the importance of change, the importance of a North Star, the importance of sunny uplands, the importance of a vision.

“Present company excepted, I think, generally speaking, the life expectancy of a chief executive, a football manager, a political leader, is shorter (now) than it otherwise would be.

“Keir won the general election – the first general election he stood in, which is great.

“I think the key thing now is to focus on delivery and to give people hope and a vision.

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“I think the idea of talking about ten years at this stage is just, just being frank and candid, as I always am, you know, is not realistic, because people want to talk about the next election.”

London had been seen as a Labour stronghold, but the local elections proved that to be anything but the case when they lost 11 of their 21 seats last week.

Mr Khan continued: “There was, without doubt, unhappiness with Keir Starmer, with the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, and with the Labour government.

“We should be giving hope. People didn’t vote for a Labour government for more doom and gloom.”

The mayor has also blamed the Government for the loss of “good councillors".

He stated: “My anger is made worse by the fact that we saw this coming.

“We made these promises in advance of July 2024 and it’s been almost two years, and we’ve simply not delivered the pace of change that people voted for.

“Good councillors could have kept their seats, and they didn’t, not through any fault of themselves, their councillors or City Hall, but because of the Labour government.”

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