Labour stands accused of trying to reverse Brexit after Sadiq Khan said the UK could rejoin the Customs Union.
The London Mayor said re-entering the trade alliance should be on the table when the Brexit deal with the EU comes up for review next year.
His comments came as shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy vowed that a future Labour government would treat Brussels as ‘our closest friends and allies’ rather than opponents.
Mr Khan told a Fabian Society conference in London: ‘I’m not saying today we should rejoin the EU. What I’m saying is David Lammy is on to something when he’s saying we should have a closer relationship with the EU.’
Asked if that meant the Customs Union, he replied: ‘I think everything should be on the table.’
Sadiq Khan told a Fabian Society conference in London: ‘I’m not saying today we should rejoin the EU. What I’m saying is David Lammy is on to something when he’s saying we should have a closer relationship with the EU’
He criticised the Tory Government’s ‘extreme hard Brexit’ and even appeared to hit out at Labour’s ‘omerta’, or pact of silence, preventing the party from discussing potential economic reintegration with Brussels.
Mr Khan, who is seeking a third term in May’s mayoral election, said in a statement: ‘The Government’s hard Brexit has done damage right across London, and it is young people who have been hardest hit in so many ways.
‘Not only is it more difficult for young people to move abroad for work but the Government’s wrongheaded decision to leave the Erasmus scheme has made it much harder for students to study abroad too.
‘I’m clear that I’d be supportive of a youth mobility scheme, which would benefit us economically, culturally and socially.
‘While the UK may no longer be part of the EU, London is and always will be a European city.’
The mayor wants young people to be able to study, travel and fill vacancies in key sectors of the economy such as hospitality, which has historically relied on EU workers and has faced staff shortages.