Calls led by Sadiq Khan for Britain to rejoin EU to be debated by MPs on first day back to Parliament

MPs will debate a petition on Monday calling for the UK to rejoin the European Union – a move called for by London mayor Lord Sadiq Khan.

The petition, which states that “Brexit’s not working”, has more than 110,000 signatures, passing the six-figure threshold for a parliamentary debate.

He has heaped praise on the pro-Brussels noises being made by Prime Minister Andy Burnham since he entered Downing Street in July.

In his first Labour Party conference speech as leader, the Prime Minister said Brexit had done “more harm than good”.

He promised to set out the options to the country around the time of a UK-EU summit later this year.

Mayor of London Lord Sadiq Khan has praised the Prime Minister’s words on Brexit

AFP/Getty

Lord Khan heralded the British leader for “calling out the historic mistake” of voting to Leave during the 2016 Brexit referendum.

London voted overwhelmingly to Remain in 2016. All but five of the capital’s 33 councils voted in favour of staying inside the political and trading union.

A poll published in the summer indicated that the strength of feeling towards EU membership remains in tact a decade later.

A Savanta UK survey found that two thirds of Londoners would vote to rejoin the bloc in a fresh referendum. That figure was even higher at 85% for adults in the capital aged 18 to 34.

MPs will return from their conference season break on Monday, with one of the first debates in Westminster Hall, a lower-rung debating chamber, scheduled to be on a petition wanting to reverse the Brexit vote.

It is titled: “Apply to Rejoin the EU as soon as possible to increase growth in the UK.”

Andy Burnham vowed to set out the options on closer ties with Europe in his Labour conference speech

PA Wire

The petition says: “Ten years after the Brexit vote, let's apply to rejoin the EU, reverse the damage, boost growth, increase tax revenues and restore opportunities in the UK.

“It's time to seek to rejoin the EU, remove those [trade] barriers and boost the economy.”

The Cabinet Office responded to the petition in January, shortly after it was published, saying ministers were working to “reset” relations with the EU.

That response was published before Mr Burnham became prime minister.

It comes as the Prime Minister became the first British leader to confirm that there was Russian interference in the Brexit referendum.

In an interview with the Rest Is Politics podcast, due to air on Monday, he said: “I asked the question coming to Downing Street, well was there interference in the 2016 referendum from Russia? I’ve had the clear answer that yes, there was.”

The Prime Minister said he believes it is important to put this “clearly on the record” to help voters in Germany and France understand “some of this politics is instigated via our enemies”, coming against a backdrop of a rise in support for far-right parties in those countries.

He added: “I think we’ve been too much on the back-foot on that actually and we haven’t informed people sufficiently about the extent to which people are seeking to disrupt the political process from overseas.”

Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee found in 2020 that the Government failed to fully assess the impact Russian state-run media and “troll” accounts could have had on the EU referendum.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “I’m not going to agree with Andy Burnham on everything, but this statement needed to be said by a Prime Minister.

“After the Conservatives suppressed the truth for years, this took courage.

“We must do far more to protect our democracy from attack by the Kremlin and other hostile states, before it is too late.”

Mr Burnham has previously taken aim at Russian information warfare during a speech to the UN General Assembly last month, saying at the time there was evidence Moscow tried to interfere with the 2019 general election.