Brexit: London mayor wants Europeans living in British capital to feel welcome

Reaction over the UK referendum on the European Union.

The London mayor Sadiq Khan praised the British capital’s 'nearly one million European citizens' as hard-working, tax-paying residents contributing to civic and cultural life. Will Oliver / EPA

The London mayor Sadiq Khan wants Europeans living in the British capital to feel welcome in the city despite the result of the EU referendum. Below is a timeline of events as the result became clear.

In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Mr Khan praised London’s “nearly one million European citizens” as hard-working, tax-paying residents contributing to civic and cultural life, according to AFP.

“You are welcome here. We value the enormous contribution you make to our city and that will not change as a result of this referendum,” Mr Khan said.

“We all have a responsibility to now seek to heal the divisions that have emerged throughout this campaign – and to focus on what unites us, rather than that which divides us.”

Timeline of reactions to UK vote to leave the European Union. All times UAE:

2.45pm

Paras Anand, the head of European Equities at Fidelity International, said that the Brexit had caused “some ructions within the market”, but added that the economic fallout was likely to be less dramatic than the financial downturn or sovereign debt crisis.

“This is a much more modest event, in terms of [its scope] to shape macroeconomics. And hence I do expect that the reaction will be more short lived,” he said.

“Typically the market tends to get less dramatically disrupted by events that it tends to analyse in advance. It’s much more the things that come from leftfield that tend to precipitate much more pronounced distortions or dislocations in market.”

He added however that the Brexit vote could lead to higher inflation forecasts over the next six or 12 months.

2.30pm

The prominent Remain campaigner Richard Reed, the co-founder of smoothie brand Innocent, of which Coca-Cola took full control in 2013, said he was not surprised to see the markets react so dramatically this morning.

“I’m not predicting doomsday, although if you look at the markets it’s pretty doomy,” he said.

“Britain as a country had it all. And now we’re going to have a bit less,” he added. “There’s more in common than [what] divides us. And we have to find a way to rediscover that.”

2.14pm

The commentator Chris Doyle, a director of the London-based Council for Arab-British Understanding, said that the path ahead would be “bumpy” and that Britain remains “very divided”.

“It’s going to be a huge effort just to bring the country back together again after this very bitter and divisive campaign,” he said.

Mr Doyle said that he did not expect big changes in relations between Britain and the Arabian Gulf and wider Arab world.

“Our relations with the [Arabian] Gulf will probably remain very strong,” he said.

“There will be some areas though that do change … If there is an economic downturn in Britain we may not have the resources to fund assistance to Syrians, for example, in the way that we have been hitherto.”

1.03pm

The FTSE 100 index tumbled in the first few minutes of trading, wiping more than £100 billion (Dh544.13bn) off the value of the UK’s top companies.

Azad Zangana, the senior European economist at the asset management firm Schroders: “We’re not forecasting a recession at this stage, but we would say that the risk of recession in the UK is now running at around 35, 40 per cent – very elevated indeed.

“This period of uncertainty now, as these negotiations take place, will probably lead to a significant delay, postponement and even cancellation of many investment projects, both funded domestically and through foreign direct investment. We’d already seen evidence of this starting from about six months ago. We suspect this will now continue.

“The UK benefits disproportionately from foreign direct investment, so it will be a more significant shock than most people anticipate.

“Over time, as the pull off in investment starts to feed through into a slowdown in jobs growth, maybe even job losses, the household sector will also start to feel the pain.”

The fall in the value of sterling “could continue for some time”, leading to higher import prices and higher inflation, Mr Zangana said.

He warned of “potential contagion spreading through a number of the markets” in Europe, with the possibility of other referendum votes on EU membership.

12.50pm

Rory Bateman, the head of European equities at Schroders: “Today’s reaction is not going to be representative. There is a significant amount of panic in the market [and] significant uncertainty overall. And today’s reaction will be a kneejerk reaction,” he said.

“The market hates uncertainty as we know… We need some political certainty in order to stabilise markets.

“Domestically focused businesses are likely to underperform relative to the international players,” he said. “78 per cent of FTSE 100 revenues are derived overseas, and in actual fact a lot of those businesses will be significant beneficiaries of sterling weakness.”

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