Brexit won't lead the UK into Mad Max-styled dystopia, says Davis

Brexit secretary David Davis tried to reassure UK citizens and the rest of Europe in a speech in Vienna on Tuesday that the UK will not be “plunged into a Mad Max-style dystopian fiction” after leaving the European Union.

Addressing Austrian business leaders in Vienna, Davis aimed to shed some light on the details of the future relationship Britain wants with the EU.

Davis’ speech was been released overnight and showed he was insistent on making clear Brexit will not “lead to an Anglo-Saxon race to the bottom with Britain plunged into a Mad Max-style world borrowed from dystopian fiction”.

The Brexit secretary said Britain will not lower legal regulatory standards to be able to compete with the European market.

"We will continue our track record of meeting high standards after we leave the European Union," he will say.

"Now, I know that for one reason or another there are some people who have sought to question that these really are our intentions.

Fears about a “race to the bottom” in employees rights and environmental measures, he insisted, were “based on nothing, not history, not intention, nor interest”. Davis said the ideal scenario would involve close co-operation between the UK and the EU on regulations and standards.

"A crucial part of any agreement is the ability for both sides to trust each other's regulations and the institutions that enforce them,” will say the Brexit secretary.

"Such mutual recognition will naturally require close, even-handed co-operation between these authorities and a common set of principles to guide them,” he concluded.

The UK's financial sector has also commented onf Davis' speech, Chief Executive of UK Financie Stephen Jones has said the UK and the EU start from a unique position post-Brexit with a highly integrated market and similar standards.

“It should be entirely possible to use this as the basis for an ambitious Free Trade Agreement that benefits businesses and consumers on both sides of the Channel.

“Any system of mutual recognition must include services, which account for almost a third of total trade between the EU and UK.

“The UK finance sector does not want to see any weakening of current regulatory standards, which are a key source of competitive strength. The UK is and should always seek to be the safest and most transparent place for banking and other financial service providers to do business," he concluded.

Davis has already been in Paris this week for talks with French foreign minister Nathalie Loiseau about international cooperation especially post-Brexit.

Although the UK expect to have a common set of regulations and standards with the EU, chief negotiator Michel Barnier said it would be impossible for the UK to take back control to create its own system of regulations and at the same time have them recognised in the EU.

Last month Barnier said the UK would have to abide by the bloc's rules in full during the proposed post-Brexit two-year transition deal. The EU wants the transition period to run from March 29, 2019, when Britain leaves, to December 31, 2020.