London’s Mayor must stop fighting the Brexit war – and move on like British business has
Avoiding self-help gurus in January is akin to dodging potholes on London’s roads: very difficult indeed. Now that every marketing consultant in Britain is also a LinkedIn influencer, it’s becoming even more challenging to avoid ever-more facile drivel about looking forward, turning the page, and living, laughing and loving your way into 2024.
One person who has somehow avoided this peurile nonsense is the Mayor of London, who tonight will deliver a speech bemoaning the Brexit vote, now eight years ago. One can only assume that rather than the new year, new you rubbish the rest of us were subjected to, the algorithm served the Mayor instead with lots of advice about being your authentic self: goodness knows we’re all aware of the fact that he’s no fan of our departure, and he’s not changing his mind anytime soon.
Now, it is not obligatory for political and public figures to just accept and adapt to things they don’t like. Khan is perfectly entitled to bemoan the vote, to quote job loss figures that will inevitably be contested, and set up his stall for this year’s mayoral election as an anti-Brexit candidate.
Whether it works at the polls is a different question. Certainly amongst the business community, a little more adaptability would be welcome.
Indeed he would win more friends in the Square Mile by identifying the opportunities of our departure – from revitalising the research ecosystem to writing our own AI rulebook – and lobbying central government to get a shift on. With Whitehall, the Bank and regulators dragging their feet on everything from ‘low-skill’ visas to financial services reform, another public voice putting on the pressure would be of some use.
There are many battles to be fought over the coming years, and Khan’s camp is excited about the possibility of working for the first time with a Labour administration if the party triumphs in both the capital and the country at large. But fighting the last war will be of no use to anybody.