Theresa May pledges to work with Square Mile on post-Brexit deal

British Prime Minister Theresa May has vowed to work with Square Mile. Photo / Getty

Theresa May has pledged to work with the Square Mile to forge a good deal for the financial services community during the Brexit negotiations if she is re-elected as Prime Minister.

In an interview ahead of next Thursday's general election, Mrs May said she wanted to work with major banks and other City firms to ensure that "we can maintain the City as the important presence that it is not just in relation to the UK but in relation to capital markets and financial services internationally."

"We need to make sure that we're getting a good deal for the City in the future," she continued.

The Prime Minister, speaking to CityAM, the London financial freesheet, admitted however that there would be "a degree of uncertainty" during the negotiations.

Asked if it would be unwise for the European Union to unpick what the City has, she said: "I would hope that actually what people will see in the remaining 27 member states is the significant role that the City plays in supporting their economies and their businesses and also the fact that it has taken many years for the City to build up those expertise, to build up that ecosystem. That can't be done by somebody else at the drop of a hat.

"I think they [EU countries] all benefit from the expertise, the skills, the size of the capability of the City and anything that diminished that would not be sensible for them because they're benefiting from it at the moment," she continued.

On the all important subject of euro-clearing, and overtures from Eurocrats to attempt to shift the bulk of the market to the continent, she cautioned: "First of all this doesn't happen over night, it takes years to build up the whole ecosystem that supports financial services, and actually London is a benefit, the City of London is a benefit to other countries, to businesses in other countries."

As part of the interview, in a rare personal moment, Mrs May also said that she enjoyed her own time in the Square Mile, where she worked at the Association for Payment Clearing Services, and at the Bank of England "That was my first job, and I enjoyed it... the City is an incredibly dynamic place to work and I think when you work there you get a huge sense of its significance for the UK."