Sadiq Khan and the Brexit brick wall

Sir Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, must sometimes feel like the boy who points out that the emperor has no clothes on, only to be told, “Shut up, we are all perfectly happy with the emperor’s wardrobe”.

His criticisms of Donald Trump are, it must be admitted, hardly diplomatic. When the government is desperately trying to get in the White House’s good books, it is not helpful to have such a prominent Labour figure calling Trump rude names or saying, as Khan did on November 6, that the lesson of the US election was “that progress is not inevitable” and mentioning “racism and hatred” in the next breath. This is why the Lords whip Lord Leong recently said that a “period of silence would be most welcome” from the mayor.

But you can’t keep a good man down and on Brexit, Khan is one of the best. Today he is telling a meeting of EU ambassadors in London that “Brexit was a mistake that continues to have a negative impact – not just on my city and country but on the European community as a whole”. This is something we all know but which seems to be unmentionable in government.

He will also call for the UK to sign up to a youth mobility scheme that would encourage under-30s from across Europe to study or work in each other’s countries. He will say: “This would help to aid economic growth across Europe, but also give young Londoners and EU citizens important life experiences – like the opportunity to work abroad and learn more about our respective languages and cultures.”

This is an eminently sensible policy that goes beyond reversing some of the xenophobia of Brexit and giving British students and other young people the chance to learn a language. More immediately, it would help the British economy – especially the service sector – to recruit keen young Europeans who want to work for a short time here. It is something the EU is keen on and would therefore encourage them to look more favourably on our attempt to “reset” our relationship with the EU, in other ways.

However, Khan’s enthusiasm for youth mobility comes up against three huge problems.

The first is that the Labour government seems committed to its red lines of Brexit – no membership of the single market or the customs union, nor any freedom of movement. Labour seems to have stuck with them even though they make no sense because it was and remains terrified of losing Red Wall voters to Reform.

Secondly, whatever Khan says about youth mobility helping “to aid economic growth” and give young people “important life experiences”, the government just sees more immigration as a result. It is, as we know, terrified of the immigration numbers and desperately wants to cut them any way it can. It is a sign of how scared it is that although youth mobility would be good for growth, even a government whose first policy is to encourage growth by all means possible, won’t support it.

The third problem is that Khan, just cannot resist pointing out that he wants to improve our relationship with the EU because it is “essential” if we are to “tackle a host of shared challenges – relating to trade, our economies, security, the environment and the rise of an intolerant and anti-democratic populism.” Oh dear, who can he mean? Not Trump again?

Well yes, and although saying it out loud so often may not be helpful it does underline a terrible dilemma for this government. Can it stay close to both America and the European Union? It thinks it can, but if we know anything about Trump it is that he hates the EU with an illogical fury and would love to pull us further from its orbit.

In the end, this is not about youth mobility, this is realpolitik. Khan knows which way we have to jump, Keir Starner thinks we can play both sides off against the middle.

They can’t both be right, and I strongly suspect that the emperor in Downing Street knows he really doesn’t have any clothes on when it comes to Brexit – yet still hates having his nudity pointed out to all and sundry.