Sadiq Khan calls for London must "take back control": Londoners pay in average ￡9,605 a year in transfer payments to the rest of the UK

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London said that now London must "take back control". The Mayor also called on the Government to agree a devolution deal for London, granting the capital more control over skills and training services, tax raising powers, national rail train services, criminal justice, health services and own "London working permits". 

I reviewed various reports and official statistics. Based on data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). Londoners are contributing in average ￡9,605 a year in transfer payments to the rest of the UK, which compares to ￡131 net contribution to the EU budget. This means that Londoners contribute to the rest of the UK 73 times more than to the EU budget. 

Following the arguments used by the Leave campaign during the EU referendum campaign to "take back control", this would be a strong argument to convert London into a city state. London could become an economic powerhouse like Singapore or Hong Kong. Nothing seems to be impossible anymore. 

A petition calling for London to declare independence did attract more nearly 200,000 votes. I just signed :-)  See https://www.change.org/p/sadiq-khan-declare-london-independent-from-the-uk-and-apply-to-join-the-eu