NatWest’s Sir Howard Davies: ‘I’m quite pessimistic. Brexit was a significant mistake’

Howard Davies in his office at NatWest. ‘I sense a bitterness in public life which doesn’t create a good environment for rational solutions.’ Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Observer

Sir Howard Davies is a worried man. He is worried about political polarisation. He is worried about the long-term impact of Brexit on the City of London. And he is worried by the pushback against globalisation.

One thing he is not especially worried about is the health of the bank he chairs, NatWest, which in its former guise as Royal Bank of Scotland was on the edge of collapse during the global financial crisis of 2008.