𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Kemi Badenoch has savaged Labour’s Brexit betrayal after mayor Sir Sadiq Khan demanded Britain be taken back into the European Union. The Tory leader accused Labour of wanting to “refight the Brexit fight” and said Sir Keir Starmer’s party was “scraping the bottom of the barrel”.

Her comments came after the Remain-backing Labour Mayor of London said Sir Keir Starmer should go into the next election with a pledge to reverse the democratic decision to leave the EU. Sir Sadiq also called for the Prime Minister to drag the country back into the customs union and the single market before 2029, telling Italian newspaper La Repubblica that bowing to Brussels again was “inevitable”.

Mrs Badenoch accused Labour of wanting to take the country backwards saying her rival party “want to refight the Brexit fight”.

She added: “I came into parliament a year after the referendum and I saw what happened when MPs spent three years litigating a referendum where the public gave a very clear verdict. I do not want that to happen again.” Urging people to start talking about “how we compete with Europe” she issued a rallying call to Brexiteers saying “we can do better […] because let’s face it Europe has many of the same problems we do.”

Mrs Badenoch suggested that Europe’s low growth and lack of innovation were some of the reasons people voted to leave. Rejoining the customs union or the single market would not solve these problems, she said, adding that the Labour Party had “nothing new to say” and was “going back to 2016 and scraping the bottom of the barrel to look for policies from back then.”

Members of the London Assembly also took aim at the Mayor with Reform UK’s Alex Wilson saying it was “no suprise at all” that the Mayor was “banging the drum to rejoin the EU.”. Mr Wilson said: “He has consistently blamed Brexit for most if not all of his failings as Mayor. The truth is that London’s lack of housebuilding, rising crime and crumbling transport infrastructure is his fault – not that of Brexit.”

He added: “Sadiq Khan ought to remember that more Londoners voted to leave the EU than voted for him at any single election. He evidently has as little respect for democracy as he does for concerned Londoners.”

Criticism also came in thick and fast from City Hall Conservatives.London Tory leader Susan Hall blasted that the Mayor was “utterly disdainful of democracy”. Ms Hall said: “He knows the Government has no mandate to rejoin the Single Market or the Customs Union. Indeed Labour’s 2024 manifesto promised ‘There will be no return to the single market, the customs union, or freedom of movement.'”

She added: “It is no surprise that the failing Mayor of London prefers to focus on areas completely outside his remit rather than focus on his day job. Londoners suffer the consequences of that every day through high crime, congestion-filled roads, faltering public transport and so much more. Keir Starmer and his Government are doing a terrible job, but they could always do worse and would do if they listened to Sadiq Khan.”

Sir Sadiq said he felt cost-of-living pressures meant that “at some stage we are going to rejoin the European Union”. The Mayor added that he saw “on a daily basis the damage Brexit has done to not just London, but Londoners, the damage economically, socially and culturally”.

He blamed US tariffs and the escalating conflict with Iran as factors driving up costs for British families. In a stunning rebuke of his own party’s leadership, Mr Khan also fumed at recently announced immigration reforms, saying he hoped people would listen to “myself, Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham and many others who have expressed concerns”.

The intervention came after Sir Keir was left battling with his own backbenchers following Ms Rayner, his former deputy, blasting the Government’s immigration reforms as “un-British”.

The Mayor’s call for a return to the customs union and single market would effectively reverse the core economic parts of Brexit, restoring free movement and handing regulatory control back to Brussels.