Sadiq Khan speaks the Brexit truth the nation needs to hear

To those outside London, Sadiq Khan, the capital’s mayor, can seem a forbidding figure, an all-powerful overlord who, for whatever reason, is intent on forcing both radical Islam and rampant wokery upon a decaying capital.

The narrative promoted by those who, inevitably, don’t live in the city – they might live in Dubai, say, or 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW – is that this figure of complex evil, who wants to impose sharia law while simultaneously renaming an Overground line after the Suffragettes, dominates metropolitan life to a corrosive level.

The actual truth for those of us who choose to live in this wonderful city is that… we don’t think about him an awful lot. True, there are those who live in the outer boroughs, who hate Khan because he stopped their God-given right to drive fume-spewing old bangers around the capital’s streets with impunity.

Those people in the outer boroughs also tend to be the ones who insist they aren’t London, although they are. Romford MP Andrew Rosindell defected to Reform in part because Nigel Farage promised a referendum on it becoming part of Essex again, despite it joining London before Rosindell was born.

But for the rest of us, Khan is like the aunt you only see at family weddings – sort of forgotten about until the next photo opportunity. Here’s Sadiq on St Patrick’s Day in a hat! Here’s Sadiq at the baseball with a hot dog! Here’s Sadiq unveiling whoever the new sponsor is of that silly cable car!

Unlike Andy Burnham, who only ever wanted to be Manchester mayor until he briefly didn’t, Khan has never given the remotest suggestion of wanting a bigger job, and rarely intervenes in national affairs. Which means when he does it is usually worth listening to – rather like the way John Major is, and Boris Johnson very much isn’t.

And so it makes his comments today urging Labour to campaign on rejoining the EU at the next election considerably more interesting. Khan had always been a hugely enthusiastic Remainer. Of course he was – he is the mayor of a city which benefited hugely from the UK being part of the European Union. But he is also a very canny politician, and the fact he has made his intervention now makes it all the more compelling.

The savvy Khan wasn’t tricked by La Repubblica into saying: “We should, as a Labour party, fight the next general election with a clear manifesto commitment, a vote for Labour means we would rejoin the European Union. I think it’s inevitable.” He did it because, as he said: “The facts have changed.”

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He meant economically, citing new research conducted by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and Goldman Sachs that suggested the UK economy would have grown by an additional 10% but for Brexit.

But he must also have meant politically. Because, firstly, things are audibly changing at the top of government. Keir Starmer may remain obstinate, but the second most powerful figure in the cabinet (sorry David Lammy) is edging steadily closer to realignment with Brussels.

Asked to choose between President Trump and Ursula von der Leyen by the Times at the weekend, Rachel Reeves did not hesitate. “Ursula von der Leyen,” she says. “I believe our future is closely intertwined with that of Europe.” (Starmer would have said “Mikel Arteta” and thought himself very clever.)

Secondly, a Labour leadership fight is brewing and, while Khan will not be a contender, he can be an influence. The Labour membership is overwhelmingly, perhaps monolithically, pro-European, and he will no doubt want to keep the issue firmly on the agenda with a hope that whoever succeeds Starmer, perhaps as soon as this summer, is firmly aligned.

Thirdly, because the facts are changing geopolitically. The more Trump acts as a global bully, tearing up every post-war alliance and musing about the destruction of Nato, the more being a small island-and-a-bit on the edge of the world’s most powerful trade bloc looks a very lonely place to be.

Happily, it also coincides with those media who campaigned so hard for Brexit being a largely spent force, along with those politicians who fed them (Exhibit A, your honour: this week’s Daily Express splash “Stop pointing the finger at Brexit and fix economy”, approvingly quoting that titan of world affairs Mel Stride).

And fourthly: because Labour are stuffed. Khan, mayor of one of the world’s most successful multicultural cities, must be pained to see the possibility of Nigel Farage and his merry band of racist gadflies taking power at the next general election. Labour currently has no positive story, no narrative, no offer. So why not go into it with a big, bold gambit in black and white?

“On the ballot paper of the next general election is a vote for Labour, a vote to rejoin the European Union, and we should be unequivocal about the benefits of the European [Union] because we’ve now seen the alternative,” says Khan. Of course they should. Because, frankly, if they’re going to get hammered anyway, they might as well go down fighting for something.

Khan is worth listening to. Because at the moment, Labour is rather like that very silly cable car in the east of his capital: going absolutely nowhere anyone wants to go.