{"id":109417,"date":"2025-05-17T16:10:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T16:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/109417\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T16:10:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T16:10:14","slug":"sadiq-khan-jokes-about-declaring-independence-for-london-as-brexit-bashing-mayor-plots-path-to-rejoin-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/109417\/","title":{"rendered":"Sadiq Khan jokes about &#8216;declaring independence&#8217; for London as Brexit-bashing Mayor plots path to rejoin EU"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sadiq Khan has joked about declaring independence for London before hinting at the UK rejoining the EU at some point in the future.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with the BBC, the three-time London Mayor quipped that he &#8220;likes the sound of El Presidente Khan&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Khan, who has been the Mayor of London since 2016, jested that he is &#8220;always tempted to unilaterally declare independence&#8221; for the capital.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;I think it will be very difficult in the short term to even talk about rejoining the European Union.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"ed6c1\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"98cca44cf0c3658aa3fabf9f30383119\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%204000%202799'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/sadiq-khan.jpg\" width=\"4000\" height=\"2799\" alt=\"Sadiq Khan\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sadiq Khan does not see the UK rejoining the EU in the short term, but is hopeful for a return in the future<\/p>\n<p>PA<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the medium to long term, yes, of course, I would like to see us rejoining the European Union.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, Khan stressed that a referendum is &#8220;a once-in-a-generation vote&#8221; and does not see another one in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think we need to respect the will of the British public in 2016,&#8221; the Mayor said. <\/p>\n<p>In 2018, Khan was a vocal supporter of a second referendum on EU membership.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:<br \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He stressed that the UK does not have to be &#8220;just takers&#8221; if it rejoins the EU but can be &#8220;more makers&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Criticism has come the Mayor&#8217;s way recently, despite being re-elected twice in 2021 and 2024.<\/p>\n<p>A recent petition granting all UK residents permission to vote for the Mayor of London has received over 46,000 signatures.<\/p>\n<p>The petition said: &#8220;Only people who live in Greater London are allowed to vote for candidates in the Mayoral elections.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"2eaa5\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"f821f31c5caa1f6d237f1092e100e2d5\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%203700%202601'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1747498214_272_sadiq-khan.jpg\" width=\"3700\" height=\"2601\" alt=\"Sadiq Khan\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Khan celebrated his ninth anniversary as London Mayor on May 9, 2025<\/p>\n<p>PA<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We think London carries so much influence across the globe, and the majority of UK residents have no say as to who &#8216;heads up&#8217; and manages our great city, and we should. London belongs to us all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Khan supported the Remain campaign during 2016 and attended a Britain Stronger in Europe campaign event with the Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron.<\/p>\n<p>He insisted all EU citizens living in London were welcome following the UK&#8217;s vote to leave.<\/p>\n<p>In more recent times, he was the first Mayor of London to be awarded a knighthood for his political and public services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sadiq Khan has joked about declaring independence for London before hinting at the UK rejoining the EU at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,528,257,12,285,14252,16,1259,3106,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-109417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-labour-party","16":"tag-london","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-sadiq-khan","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-uk-news","22":"tag-uk-politics","23":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114524050451319725","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}