Sadiq Khan requests special Brexit deal for London

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan is requesting a special Brexit deal to allow London to stay within the European Union’s single market and customs union.

Earlier today, following talks between the Prime Minister and EU Commission head Jean Claude Juncker, a draft text for the agreement on the Irish question was released stating that there will be no "regulatory divergence" on the island after the UK leaves the bloc.

DUP leader, Arlene Foster responded angrily, saying that the party would by no means accept a deal where Northern Ireland doesn’t leave the EU on the same terms as the rest of the UK.

In an unexpected turn of events, that was followed by both Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon releasing statements in which they requested special deals for both London and Scotland too, as most of their citizens had voted to remain.

Sturgeon took to her Twitter account to say: "If one part of UK can retain regulatory alignment with EU and effectively stay in the single market (which is the right solution for Northern Ireland) there is surely no good practical reason why others can’t".

Khan was in a similar frame of mind, arguing for a similar arrangement to be put in place for the capital.

Huge ramifications for London if Theresa May has conceded that it's possible for part of the UK to remain within the single market & customs union after Brexit. Londoners overwhelmingly voted to remain in the EU and a similar deal here could protect tens of thousands of jobs.

— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) 4 de diciembre de 2017

Khan added: "Londoners overwhelmingly voted to remain in the EU and a similar deal here could protect tens of thousands of jobs."

"We’ve got to recognise that leaving the EU poses huge challenges and the best way to mitigate that is to attract talent from India."

Speaking earlier from Mumbai, at the start of his six-day visit to India and Pakistan, Khan did his best to attract Indian talent to London, telling his audience that "London is open for talent".

"One of the justifications that some ministers in the government give to leave the EU is to have better trade relations with many countries like India. One of the best ways to encourage trade with India is to invite talent to London and UK,” he said.

Sadiq Khan has been adamant that London must remain 'open', despite Brexit and stringent visa norms. He told BloombergQuint in an interview: "We’ve got to recognise that leaving the EU poses huge challenges and the best way to mitigate that is to attract talent from India.”

The Mayor was also very critical of the decision to remove post-study work visas which had led Indians to choose to study in Canada or the US instead.