London mayor says fresh referendum is an option as he warns that threats by firms to leave UK over Brexit uncertainty are real

Sadiq Khan has suggested a second referendum could be on the cards if parliament rejected the Brexit deal eventually struck between the government and the 27 remaining EU member states.

“Of course that’s one of the options because you can’t have a situation where our parliament is supposed to be sovereign, our parliament rejects the deal made by our government and everyone is in paralysis,” the London mayor told Sky News.

Earlier, he called for businesses to be given certainty on what would happen when the UK leaves the bloc in March 2019. His comments came after the Goldman Sachs chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, hinted that the finance firm could move some of its operations from London to Frankfurt.

Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) Just left Frankfurt. Great meetings, great weather, really enjoyed it. Good, because I'll be spending a lot more time there. #Brexit

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Khan said Blankfein and other business leaders were not bluffing when they talked about leaving the UK.

“To be fair to the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, he’s articulating publicly what many CEOs, investors and people who love working in London have been saying privately, which is, unless they have certainty about what happens after March 2019, they’ve got to make a Plan B.



“They can’t afford to say to their shareholders and those who work for their business come March 2019: ‘We forgot to make plans, we didn’t plan for this and so, as a consequence, we’re paying the price for falling off the cliff-edge’.

“That’s why the prime minister and our government need to – as soon as possible – announce what plans we’ve got for the transition period. That includes how long it’s going to be and what it entails. Otherwise, my fear is that other businesses could well be thinking of leaving London and will realise those plans by making these announcements.

“If you speak to the CBI, they say we need certainty by the first quarter of next year. The deputy governor of the Bank of England is saying by the end of this year. The prime minister and our government has got to provide businesses with the certainty they need.”