The UK Government’s confused and troubling messages on workers’ rights post-Brexit have been criticised by the TUC.

While Brexit secretary David Davis maintained that the UK wanted to lead a “global race to the top” in rights and standards, foreign secretary Boris Johnson had a week earlier said complying with EU rules post-Brexit would be “intolerable”.

David Davis, in a 20 February address to Austrian business leaders, said if both sides recognise each other’s standards and regulations, the UK will “continue our track record of meeting high standards” once outside the EU. He dismissed fears that Britain will be “plunged into a Mad Max-style world borrowed from dystopian fiction. These fears about a race to the bottom are based on nothing, not our history, not our intentions, not our national interest. But while I profoundly disagree with those who spread these fears – it does remind us all that we must provide reassurance.”

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “David Davis lacks a plan to deliver a ‘race to the top’. And many of his Conservative colleagues say that they want ‘Mad Max’ cuts to workers’ rights and consumer standards. To prove his intentions, the Brexit secretary should keep staying in the single market on the negotiating table. Of all the current options, it’s the best platform for a race to the top, and the best protection against a race to the bottom.”