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Brexit: London Mayor allies with tech industries to urge U.K. remain

On the eve of the Brexit vote, deciding whether the U.K. should remain in the E.U., the mayor of London, along with representatives from the tech industry, penned a letter to The Times urging a Remain vote.

"Sir, There has been huge growth in jobs where the technology, finance and creative industries interact," he wrote in the letter, co-signed by 140 members of the nation's tech and creative businesses.

Claiming that the number of workers in the tech industry in London and its environs are equivalent to the number in San Francisco and San Jose combined, Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, wrote that the tech sector "benefits from being part of a huge European market of 500 million customers, with access to specialist talent across the continent."

The separation from the 28-nation alliance would create disruption, he said. "Some of Britain's fastest growing start-ups have already lost funds amid the uncertainty over our access to the Single Market."

London, he said, has the potential to be the Los Angeles, New York and Silicon Valley to the rest of Europe and could spur the creation of new jobs across Britain. "Let's not put that at risk," he said.

It is feared that a British exit – a "Brexit" – could disrupt global financial markets. Several financial institutions in the U.K. sent letters to clients warning of the potential for trade execution problems and that volatile markets could interfere with their role as intermediaries between buyers and sellers. Should markets freeze following the announcement of the election's result on Friday, the Bank of England is prepared to intervene as a "market maker of last resort."

The vote takes place on Thursday. Polls leading up to the vote indicated that those surveyed were evenly split. 

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