Mayor of London says that Britain needs to look “beyond EU” to Commonwealth

The mayor of London has urged Britain to “raise our eyes beyond Europe” by joining Australia in a “bilateral free labour mobility zone”.

Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Johnson said:  “We betrayed our relationships with Commonwealth countries such as Australia and New Zealand, and entered into preferential trading arrangements with what was then the European Economic Community.”

He suggested that the UK should think with a “truly global perspective” and said that it needed to do so by “forging and intensifying links with countries that are going to be growing in the decades ahead – countries that offer immense opportunities for British goods, people, services and capital”.

The mayor also called for the UK to “seek a wider destiny for our country”.

Johnson added: “I suppose there might be some objection from the EU — but they should be told firmly to stuff it. There is already variable geometry in EU border control arrangements.” Referring to an Australian teacher who was recently deported from the UK he noted: “It is basically outrageous and indefensible that Sally Roycroft is deprived of a freedom that we legally confer on every French person.”

David Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU before holding an in-out referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union in 2017.

Natalie McLean