Sadiq Khan seizes on London poll pushing Britain back into EU

Two thirds of Londoners now say Britain should rejoin the European Union, according to a YouGov poll reported by the Evening Standard, a finding Mayor Lord Sadiq Khan is using to press the case against Brexit.

The survey put support for reversing Brexit at 67 per cent among adults in the capital, well clear of 44 per cent in the Midlands, 48 per cent across the rest of the South and 50 per cent in the North. Just 15 per cent of Londoners would vote to stay outside the EU, against around 30 per cent elsewhere. The London figure sits close to the capital’s 60/40 Remain result in 2016.

Anthony Wells of YouGov said Londoners were more likely than people in any other English region or Wales to back rejoining, though he noted the regional samples were smaller and needed caution. The overall poll covered more than 2,300 people. Khan has long championed closer EU ties and frames Brexit as economic damage to London and the wider UK.

Labour’s stance is shifting too. Andy Burnham has pushed the Government toward closer links with the bloc and put every option on the table, including the Customs Union, the Single Market or full membership. Dame Emily Thornberry, the Islington South and Finsbury MP who chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, went further and argued Brexit should be ditched without a second referendum, sparking controversy.

Voters outside London remain far less keen. The gap underlines how the capital’s politics diverge from the country that chose sovereignty in 2016. Rejoin would hand rules, borders and trade levers back to Brussels and undo the clean break the public delivered. Reform UK and Nigel Farage have held the line for control at home; this poll does not rewrite that choice for the rest of Britain.

A London-heavy snapshot is being treated as a national green light. It is not. The figures show a city still at odds with large parts of England, not a settled case for surrendering the independence won at the ballot box.

Original source: Evening Standard