London and Brexit

Time Out has produced a series of infographics, which show how much of the population of the rest of the country could be squeezed into London. Another of their maps shows that Lewisham's population is roughly the size of Sunderland's (or Newcastle's).

The maps are an illustration of London's dominance of the UK. A map based on share of economic output per capita would be even more lopsided. It highlights the need both to grow the UK's biggest cities and to give great care to London's future.

London is the de facto business capital of Europe, with a hugely disproportionate number of global and European HQs and a vast number of its jobs reliant on London's hub status. The current and prospective Mayors of London barely touched on London's economy when declaring support for #Brexit.

In Boris' case, he acknowledged that there are 'risks' but airily dismissed them as 'likely to be exaggerated'. For his part, Goldsmith claims that "A few of the largest multinationals disagree with me about the EU, but we shouldn’t be surprised. An uncompetitive Europe benefits established players at the expense of new market entrants." This is thoroughly disingenuous.

Every survey of businesses shows a large majority in favour of remaining in Europe - from the major multinationals that employ millions to the tech stars and innovators who want easy access to talent and a single market and the manufacturers who understand that free trade is as much about adopting unified standards as part of complex European supply chains as it is about simple stuff like tariffs.

There may be good reasons to leave the EU, but dismissing the huge risks associated with Brexit is dishonest campaigning.