Millions of Londoners back Sadiq Khan’s call for Britain to rejoin EU after Brexit damage, poll shows

Collected Photo

Two thirds of Londoners believe Britain should rejoin the European Union, according to a new poll.

The YouGov survey suggested 67% of adults in the capital favour reversing Brexit, as championed by London Mayor Lord Sadiq Khan, after the economic damage it has inflicted on the capital and the rest of the UK.

The figure compares to 44% in the Midlands, 48% for the rest of the South and 50% in the North.

Andy Burnham has dramatically changed the Labour Government’s stance on Brexit, pushing for closer ties with the European bloc and putting on the table all options including going back into the Customs Union, Single Market or fully rejoining.

The regional findings are from relatively small sample sizes in a poll of more than 2,300 people so need to be treated with some caution.

But the London result is far ahead of any other swathe of the country and in line with the 60/40 outcome of the 2016 Brexit referendum in the capital.

Anthony Wells, Global Head of Politics, Elections and Public Data at YouGov, told The Standard: “When we asked how Britons would vote in a referendum to rejoin the EU, those living in London were more likely that those living anywhere else in England or Wales to say they’d vote to rejoin.

“67% of Londoners in our poll said they would vote to rejoin, compared to 44-50% of people from other English regions.

“Although we are talking about a smaller sample of Londoners, it is fair to say that pro-EU feeling in the capital remains strong a decade after the original Brexit referendum.”

Just 15% of Londoners would now vote to remain outside of the EU, according to the poll, compared to around 30% in the rest of the country, both figures significantly down on the outcome of the referendum ten years ago.

Dame Emily Thornberry, MP for Islington South and Finsbury, sparked controversy by arguing that Brexit should be ditched without a second referendum.

The senior London Labour MP, who chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, believes such a major political decision should be put to a vote, but at the general election expected in 2029 with Labour including in its manifesto that the UK should go back into the European bloc.

The survey suggested that a majority of Londoners, 57%, believe there should be another referendum held on whether the UK should rejoin the EU, if the Government is proposing the move, with 29% disagreeing.

Around two third of adults in the rest of the country say there should be another national poll to reverse Brexit which is opposed by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and Kemi Badenoch’s Conseratives.

A quarter of Northerners think there is no need for a second referendum, as say one in five people in the Midlands and the rest of the South.

* YouGov interviewed 2,312 adults online across Britain between October 4 and 5. Data are weighted.