Speaking to Sky News, Sadiq Khan has urged Theresa May to delay pressing the Brexit button - triggering Article 50, which starts the formal process of withdrawal from the EU - until next autumn, arguing that this would improve the UK’s chances of getting a decent deal. By way of Square Mile free sheet City AM, Khan’s deputy mayor for business, Rajesh Agrawal, has said that City Hall officials are talking to counterparts in Paris and other cities beyond Europe about building their own business relationships for the Brexit age.
This is a developing theme. Within days of the referendum result in June, Khan joined with the City of London in calling for UK-regulated banks to retain their existing “passporting rights”, the system that allows them to operate in the EU nations. Anything less would be “a disaster”, he said. More recently, he has reactivated the London Finance Commission, asking it to come up with further proposals for making London more autonomous, in the interests of the UK as a whole. He’s telling anyone who’ll listen that London Is Open.
Khan is banging the devolution drum at every opportunity, seeking further scope for City Hall and the capital’s 33 local authorities to take command of the capital’s destiny. How far he will get depends heavily on how receptive the new prime minister and her colleagues are to his case, but it’s significant that the media as well as ministers are listening.
That significance extends to the Labour Party. With its national leadership failing to provide effective opposition either in the House of Commons or the country at large, the views of Khan are seen as mattering still more. He is, after all, the Labour politician with the most power to put policies into effect and seems likely to remain so for some time.
He should, though, have some company before long. Next May, counterpart “metro mayors” are due to be elected to lead Greater Manchester and the Liverpool and West Midlands city regions. Labour’s candidates for those jobs, now selected, are strong favourites to win.
Their powers will vary and differ from Khan’s, as will the types of territories they serve. They will, though, look to London as a model. They too will negotiate with the Conservative government about ways to make their economies stronger. They too will surely also look beyond Westminster to the wider, post-Brexit world in their searches for growth and prosperity. They and Khan could be the faces of Labour in power in Britain for many years to come.
