A second referendum on the EU may be needed if Parliament rejects Theresa May’s deal with Brussels, Sadiq Khan today said.
The London Mayor raised the prospect of changing last year’s historic referendum by holding a fresh vote.
He said a ‘whole host of questions’ would be raised if MPs and peers refused to back the agreement Theresa May eventually strikes with Brussels.
It comes after Labour vowed to work with Tory rebels to make a slew of changes to the so-called Repeal Bill in a bid to water down Brexit.
Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan, pictured at an awards ceremony in London last week, said a second EU referendum could be held if Parliament votes down Theresa May’s Brexit deal
Mr Khan, a prominent supporter of the Remain campaign, said a second referendum could be held if Mrs May fails to win over parliament to her Brexit deal.
He said: ‘I’m quite clear the British public voted to leave the European Union, I accept the verdict of the British public – I may not like it, London voted to remain, decisively so.
‘The Government has got to do a good deal with the European Union, and our Parliament, which is sovereign, must have a vote on that deal.
‘If Parliament decides to accept the deal that our Government makes then we are leaving the European Union.
‘If Parliament rejects the deal made by our Government then that opens up a whole host of questions.’
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Khan said businesses are already making contingency plans to leave London because they are worried about the final deal which might be struck.
Theresa May, pictured updating MPs on the Brexit negotiations in Parliament today,is facing defeat over plans to give ministers sweeping so-called Henry VIII powers as part of their Brexit plans
Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein last week warned he might move much of his business out to Frankfurt after we quit the EU.
Mr Khan said: ‘To be fair to the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, he is articulating publicly what many CEOs, investors and people who love working in London have been saying privately, which is that, unless they have certainty about what happens after March 2019, they have got to make a plan B.’
He urged the PM to urgently secure a transition deal, saying that otherwise ‘my fear is other businesses could be thinking about leaving London’.
‘There are some banks who have already gone public about having to make contingency plans,’ he added.
His stark warning comes after Tory backbencher and Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg warned that Mrs May is facing defeat over plans to give ministers sweeping Henry VII powers in the Bill.
And he warned that Conservative rebels are probably plotting behind the scenes with Labour to add a string of amendments to the so-called Repeal Bill.