It’s just a flicker of light at the end of a long, dark Brexit tunnel. But in the dead of winter, frankly we’ll take what we can get. Which is why Sadiq Khan’s backing at the weekend of a new “youth mobility” agreement with the EU – a kind of pre-Brexit-style right for young people to work and study abroad, with reciprocal rights for young Europeans here – will have ignited a long-forgotten spark of hope for many.
The longing to hear someone just admit that Brexit has hurt this country, and that the damage now urgently needs to be fixed, is so strong you can almost touch it in places. More than seven years in, remainers are sick and tired of being told to respect leave’s always wafer-thin mandate, especially now that 51% of Britons (and 61% of Londoners, according to YouGov) say they’d vote to rejoin the EU given a chance and 42% would like at least to re-enter the single market. What Khan said is therefore a classic example of something Labour still daren’t say nationally, but increasingly risks being punished for not saying in places such as London.
