LONDON mayor Sadiq Khan has urged the EU to begin preparations to delay Brexit to allow time for a second referendum on membership or a change of government to negotiate a “good deal” on Brexit.
The Labour mayor had talks with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels yesterday, saying he wanted to avert a “political and economic crisis”.
The UK is currently due to leave the EU in March, with only five months to complete a workable withdrawal agreement to be ratified by national parliaments.
After talks that lasted an hour, Khan said Barnier had been “willing to listen” to concerns about the negotiations. The mayor said: “I made the point that a bad Brexit deal, or even worse no deal whatsoever, it’s bad for London, it’s bad for our country but it is bad for the EU as well.
“He gets that. The point I’m sure he would make if he was here is that the ball is in the court of the British prime minister and it’s important that we understand the consequences of the Article 50 notice being served when it was.”
London voted heavily in favour of Remain in the 2016 referendum. Khan was among the politicians who attended a march by hundreds of thousands of people through the city last weekend. It was thought to have been the biggest anti-Brexit demonstration since the referendum.
Speaking before the meeting, he said he wanted to tell Barnier to pass on the message that Article 50 should be extended because “what happens over the coming weeks and months will have an enormous impact on London, the UK and all of Europe for many decades to come”.
He said that he had presented different views to Barnier from those expressed by Tory Brexiteers including Iain Duncan Smith, Owen Paterson and Lord Trimble, who spoke to him in Brussels last week.
LibDem leader Sir Vince Cable, the Scottish National Party’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford, Plaid Cymru Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts and Green MEP Molly Scott Cato held talks with the EU negotiator in Brussels on Thursday.
After his meeting, Khan said: “It was really important to engage with him, to express to him the different views there are in our country. Theresa May doesn’t speak for the entire country when she talks about a bad Brexit deal or no deal whatsoever.
“I genuinely believe there is time for a better deal to be done. I genuinely believe there is a generosity, a goodwill on the part of the EU.
“My job is to also lobby my government to make sure it understands the consequences of a bad Brexit deal or or, even worse, no deal whatsoever.”
Meanwhile, the Scottish and Welsh health secretaries have said a pilot of the scheme to allow EU nationals who work in health and social care and universities to remain in the UK after Brexit should be extended to family members. The EU Settlement Scheme pilot, due to begin next month, offers people the chance to apply for settled status before the UK leaves the EU in March.
However, family members are not included, and will have to wait to a later date to have their status confirmed. Scotland’s Health Secretary Jeane Freeman and her Welsh counterpart Vaughan Gething have urged UK Immigration Minister Caroline Noakes to reconsider.
They have offered to host a pilot in Scotland and Wales in which relatives can take part.
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