London Loves EU! UK Capital Calls for Independence

The results left many Londoners bereft and wanting to break away from the rest of Britain after the majority of people in England backed Brexit.

Almost 60 percent of Londoners voted to stay in the UK, with some individual boroughs, reaching almost 80 percent in favor of remaining 'In' the EU.

​After the referendum results were revealed, a petition was promptly started by James O'Malley calling on London's Mayor Sadiq Khan "to declare London independent, and apply to join the EU — including membership of the Schengen zone."

"London is an international city, and we want it to remain at the heart of Europe."

The petition quickly gained traction on social media with #Londependence trending on Twitter

Can London Go It Alone?

"In principle, it's legally feasible," Michele Acuto, professor of urban theory and director of University College London's City Leadership Initiative, told Sputnik.

"For London-independence, there is Article 49 which invokes accession if you want to join the EU and London ticks all the boxes, more than some European countries, do when it comes to the Copenhagen criteria.

"Legally, it wouldn't be a problem, if it can call itself a country," Professor Acuto told Sputnik.

Professor Acuto, a former European Commission lawyer suggests that London could operate under a special economic zone, "with special economic provisions and immigration provisions and status, which it already has," Acuto said.

However, Acuto foresees a downside to a so-called #Londinidenpendence.

"Creating special economic zones is a slippery slope. When you have wholly integrated globalized cities — you get highly localized, even radicalized communities in rural areas which exacerbate the problem."

However, in order to protect London's global status, Acuto suggests the city be granted a special economic zone.

"The fortune of a city stands on how open and connected it is to other places and other markets and its cosmopolitan attraction. We run the risk of going in the opposite direction of all those things by being unwelcoming, putting up fences and not having the right economic conditions," Professor Acuto told Sputnik.

There has been somewhat of a backlash on social media to the #Londenpendence idea, with some Twitter users suggesting it would make people more London-centric than they already are.

​​"It's not about putting a fence around the M25 motorway — that's the wrong way to think about it — but a Brexit was the wrong way to think in the first place.

"If you ran the referendum the proper way, with all residents allowed to vote, it would have been a landslide for the Remain campaign."

At a recent press conference, London Mayor Sadiq Khan told reporters: "London doesn't want a bigger slice of the British pie — but more control of the slice of the pie we already get.

"On behalf of all Londoners, I am demanding more autonomy for the capital — right now," Khan said.

​Despite the ongoing fallout from the UK's vote to exit the EU, Acuto remains optimistic.

"I feel more optimistic because already half the things that the Leave campaign promised are not achievable. You can't maintain the same roles in the free market and limit immigration.

"Britain currently has no Prime Minister — and effectively no leader of the opposition party. We have a highly radical left — and a highly radical right.

"What's missing is the middle ground in politics, someone to say, ‘you guys got it wrong — I'll be the moderate voice,' " Acuto says. 

​The petition calling for #Londindendence has so far gathered over 177,000 signatures.