EU referendum: Mayor of London Boris Johnson faces tough questions from London Assembly over his decision to back Brexit
London mayor Boris Johnson came under fire at Mayor's Question Time this morning at City Hall, as members of the London Assembly slammed his decision to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union.
Assembly members used a session set up to scrutinise Johnson's final budget as mayor to question him on his backing of Brexit, instead.
Len Duvall, Labour’s leader in the London Assembly, accused Johnson of "sacrificing London’s future economic security on the basis of [his] personal ambition".
Read more: Everything you need to know about Brexit
Johnson rejected Duvall's claims, saying "there will be arguments both ways" but London is "losing out at a European level in a waste of money".
"Huge sums go from the UK to the European Union that we don't really see again," Johnson added.
"You will certainly hear in the next few months all sorts of people scaremongering and you will hear people saying that we can’t survive outside.
"You will hear quite a lot of Anglo-scepticism – I saw somebody use that word yesterday in the Sunday Times – there are people who don’t think that Britain could stand on her own two feet and all the rest of it," he added. "I have to say I think that is profoundly wrong."
Johnson went on to say he did not think the City would be "jeopardised at all" by Brexit, saying: "Canada is overwhelmingly the preponderant financial centre here in this part of the world, indeed it's the biggest on earth."
"I really think it is illusory to think London would somehow wither away and die."
Johnson, who is also the Conservative MP for Uxbridge, is expected to face off against Prime Minister David Cameron at 3:30pm this afternoon when Cameron makes his case in the House of Commons for the UK remaining in the EU.