Sir Sadiq Khan has stepped up his calls to reverse Brexit<\/a>, describing it as his \u201cultimate goal\u201d for the UK to join the European Union.<\/p>\n In an interview with The Observer<\/a>, the Labour Mayor said he wanted Sir Keir Starmer to show more ambition on rebuilding links with the EU, six years after the UK withdrew from the bloc.<\/p>\n And he said his aim of rejoining the EU will be achieved in his lifetime.<\/p>\n The comments come as Sir Keir attempts to ramp<\/a> up his \u201creset\u201d of EU relations<\/a>, while insisting that the government\u2019s \u201cclear red lines in relation to the single market and the customs union\u201d<\/a> remain in place. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Sadiq Khan says the UK rejoining the EU is his ‘ultimate goal’ (Getty)<\/p>\n Last week, he said Labour was working <\/a>to negotiate new arrangements with the EU, including on food and agriculture, and also indicated a desire for closer defence ties.<\/p>\n Days later, the European Commissioner for finance, Valdis Dombrovskis, told the BBC<\/a> that Brussels was \u201cready to engage\u201d if Sir Keir wished to explore the possibility of working together on a customs union.<\/p>\n In the interview published on Sunday, Sir Sadiq said: \u201cMy ultimate goal is for us to rejoin [the EU] and I think it will happen in my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Sir Keir said Labour was working to negotiate new arrangements with the EU, including on food and agriculture, and he also indicated a desire for closer defence ties (Getty Images)<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI want us to be part of a customs union. I\u2019m an advocate for us being part of a single market. I think we can negotiate more now, because of how geopolitics has changed, than we could in 2016 or 2019. Europe needs us and we need Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n The former Tooting MP campaigned to remain in the EU during the 2016 referendum, and then called <\/a>for a second referendum two years later on the basis of a \u201cbad deal\u201d being negotiated with the EU.<\/p>\n Two years ago, he declared it was \u201cobvious that Brexit isn\u2019t working\u201d, while urgently calling for a closer relationship with the EU, after a Cambridge Econometrics study estimated Brexit had cost the UK \u00a3140bn<\/a>.<\/p>\n Supporters of a custom union between the UK and the EU have said it would slash bureaucracy and costs related to trade with the EU. <\/p>\n However, critics have raised concerns that it would curtail the UK’s ability to strike bespoke global trade deals. <\/p>\n Labour’s election manifesto ruled out signing up to the existing EU customs union.<\/p>\n In December, cabinet minister Pat McFadden shut down<\/a> deputy prime minister David Lammy after he suggested rejoining the customs union could increase growth and repeatedly refused to rule out reversing Brexit.<\/p>\n Mr McFadden said Sir Keirhas been \u201cpretty clear\u201d that the UK won\u2019t be rejoining the customs union.<\/a><\/p>\n However, the issue if Brexit is set to become a key one in the next general election. <\/p>\n After Sir Keir outlined his plans to bring the UK into closer alignment with the EU,<\/a> Labour<\/a> believes it is the only political party with a position on Brexit<\/a> that reflects the views of the general public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-752573","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-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116040330691512690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752573","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=752573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sadiq](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SEI282502278.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2260041202.jpg\")
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