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Sadiq Khan has piled pressure on Sir Keir Starmer over the EU single market, saying rejoining it is “something we shouldn’t be scared to talk about”.
The prime minister has ruled out a return to the common market, saying he cannot see Britain re-entering the trading agreement in his life time. Sir Keir has also made it a red line in his ongoing post-Brexit reset with Brussels.
But the mayor of London has said returning to the market should not be ruled out, despite acknowledging there is little hope of Britain rejoining in the short term.
The government’s own analysis has suggested that rejoining the single market would boost GDP by around 3.5 per cent compared with the current EU trade deal, but such a move would come with the return of freedom of movement – another of Sir Keir’s red lines.
Mr Khan said, however, that barriers to trade with the UK’s closest neighbours should come down and the single market was “something we shouldn’t be scared to talk about”.
The prime minister has made resetting relations with the European Union a priority, although it is not clear how much can be achieved within his red lines, which include ruling out a return to the single market or customs union.
He also said he has no plans to sign up to a youth mobility scheme which has been proposed by Brussels.
But Mr Khan backed the idea of a scheme for young Britons to live and work in the EU, and vice versa.
Speaking at the government’s international investment summit, he told the PA news agency: “I’m quite clear that all successful countries do the most trade with their nearest neighbours, that’s one of the signs of success.
“We’ve got on our doorstep, not just friends and colleagues and family, we’ve got a market of more than 500 million people.
“The good news is the prime minister spent a lot of the last three months visiting friends in Europe, whether it’s the president of France, the prime minister of Italy ... the chancellor of Germany.
“The current Brexit deal we have comes up for review next year. I’m hoping, unlike last time, there will be closer alignment, rather than divergence.
“We should be looking at a whole host of issues and talking about them – whether it’s a youth mobility scheme, whether it’s seeing what we can do to bring people closer together.
“I think the reality is, in the short term, we probably aren’t going to get back as members of the single market. But it’s something we shouldn’t be scared to talk about.”
Sir Keir used an appearance on the main stage of the investment summit to acknowledge that Brexit had damaged the UK’s international standing.
He said: “The reset on the international stage has to come alongside what we are doing on investment.
“Whichever way people campaigned and voted on Brexit, one of the consequences to my mind was that the impression was given that the UK was more interested in turning in on itself and becoming more isolated and less interested, frankly, in the outside world than we once were.”
In his summit keynote speech, he said: “People want to know that Britain can be a stable, trusted, rule-abiding partner. As we always have been.
“But that, somehow, during the whole circus that followed Brexit, the last government made a few people less sure about.
“Needlessly insulting our closest allies, and of course a few choice Anglo-Saxon phrases for business. Well – no more. We have turned the page on that – decisively. And we will use that reset for growth.”
