Mayor of London Sadiq Khan puts it simply: Thank you. Thanks to all European citizens who have decided to stay in the British capital despite the barriers that make it more difficult to work, study and travel in the United Kingdom. A video letter posted on Youtube addressed by Khan ai 1.1 million Europeans who call London home, marks the seven-year anniversary of the historic referendum on Brexit. That June 23rd 2016, a painful day – the mayor of the most pro-European city on the island defines it – which ’caused immense damage to our city’ and saw European citizens in the uncertainty of the Settled Status (the procedures for obtaining permanent residency , even for those who have lived on the island for decades), used as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Brussels’.
EU flags banned – Instead of the seven candles, the mayor of London lit the lights of City Hall in the yellow and blue colors of the European Union, a gesture of solidarity for Europeans who today feel ‘other’ explained Khan, however revealing that his intentions would have been others: “We would have liked to wave blue flags with yellow stars as we do with others that we use to mark, for example, the Pride rainbow or to pay tribute to countries affected by tragedies. However, my office was threatened with legal action and so we discovered that the law was changed last year which now prohibits the lowering of EU flags on public buildings unless special authorizations have been obtained,” Khan explained.
However, it is not removing a flag that can hide a fact: if that fateful Brexit referendum were repeated today, the United Kingdom would still be in the European Union: a survey by the Tony Blair Institute reveals that 56% of Britons now say the divorce was a mistakeonly for 32% was the right decision (it was 52% in 2016) while a good 58.2% would like to re-enter the union, including a third of the notorious leaver who would now like to rejoin the single market.
A crisis within a crisis – For Brexit it is the seventh year of the crisis, just a few months before the general elections. A sword of dDmocles on Rishi Sunak, the fifth prime minister who has succeeded Downing Street since then, to try to parry the reactions triggered by Brexit, such as the fractures within the Conservative party, and above all the economic push towards the recession. They fell upon the whole world Covid, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis e the high cost of living but the UK is now bringing up the rear of the G7 squeezed amid soaring inflation still out of control, and now a new report that highlights how Brexit has sapped GDP by 4%, reduced workforce, contracted investment by 11% and damaged trade with Europe by 7% for a deficit of 92 billion pounds.
The report released on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the referendum comes from the Government of Scotland, where 62% had voted to remain in the EU and where the party is now at the helm, the Scottish National Party presses for independence from London to regain the option to rejoin as a member. It is a compilation of analyzes from several national statistics centers which also quantify the impact of Brexit on consumers’ lives, with around £250 more a year on groceries and a 25% rise in food and drink prices between December 2019 and March of this year. A third of these increases would be due to Brexit which weighs on families for about 7 billion pounds of costs for trade barriers to importing EU products.
No going back – Sunak’s team swallows the toad in order to pronounce the word Brexit but is working covertly to appease the hard-line Brixies and arrive at more conciliatory positions with Brussels. On one thing, however, the majority and the opposition seem to agree: there is no turning back from Brexit. Keir Starmer, Labor leader, by now considered the new prime minister, closes to a new referendum or the return to the customs union and the free movement of people, even if his party is increasingly hearing the voices of those who would like greater convergence in EU policies on trade, visa and cultural and scientific collaborations. “Brexit is not working, we have to choose whether we want to approach or diverge from our closest neighbours, a market of 500 million people” says the Labor mayor of London Sadiq Khan who with the renewed commitment to European citizens seems to kick-start the campaign campaign towards elections at City Hall in May 2024.