We will have rules that mean same outcomes as EU: Davis

The Brexit secretary said the government was seeking “regulatory alignment” with the EU in certain areas, but stressed this “isn’t having exactly the same rules”.

The reported suggestion of regulatory alignment between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland scuppered hopes of an agreement on withdrawal issues during negotiations between Theresa May and senior EU figures in Brussels on Monday.

The DUP which props up her minority Government rejected the plan, which was designed to avoid a hard Irish border.

DUP leader Arlene Foster made clear she would not accept any deal which would leave Northern Ireland with different rules to the rest of the UK as it would effectively draw a new border in the Irish Sea.

Answering an urgent question on negotiations in the House of Commons, Mr Davis said he was seeking alignment in certain areas for the whole UK.

Conservative Antoinette Sandbach said businesses in her constituency were urging the government to adopt regulatory alignment and called for it to apply to the whole UK.

Mr Davis replied: “The presumption of the discussion was that everything we talked about applied to the whole UK.

“I reiterate, alignment isn’t harmonisation, it isn’t having exactly the same rules, it’s sometimes having mutually recognised rules, mutually recognised inspection, all of that sort of thing as well, and that’s what we’re aiming at.”

In another answer, to Commons Home Affairs Committee chair Yvette Cooper, the Brexit secretary said: “I refer you to the speech the prime minister made in Florence because in it she dealt with this ... in it she made a very plain case for the sorts of divergence we would see after we left.

“And she made the case that there are areas where we want the same outcome but by different regulatory methods – we want to maintain safety, we want to maintain food standards, we want to maintain animal welfare, we want to maintain employment rights.

“We don’t have to do that by exactly the same mechanism as everybody else, that’s what regulatory alignment means.”

Mr Davis also sidestepped a question from Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg on whether he would make “diverging” from EU rules an “indelible red line”.

The Brexit secretary said: “The red line for me is delivering the best Brexit for Britain, and that’s what we’ll do.”