In saying so, he is either being naive or disingenuous, although to be fair, selling the plan at a Tory Party conference as 'greater harmonisation with our European neighbours' would have been rather more difficult.
Polls show that many of us admit to breaking the speed limit on the motorway, and regard 80mph as a 'safe' and comfortable speed in the UK. Some other European countries have their speed limits set at around that limit.