THE UK will be required to accept EU rules before any Brexit transition deal is agreed – a demand which is likely to prove unacceptable to key figures in Theresa May's Cabinet.

According to leaked EU documents chief negotiator Michel Barnier wants to make agreeing to the UK's two-year period of adjustment after the March 2019 exit, conditional on Britain's "automatic" acceptance of new Brussels regulations during the period.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has already indicated that accepting further regulations from Brussels would cross a red line. It is also likely to enrage other Brexiteers in the Cabinet like Michael Gove and Liam Fox.

Barnier also makes clear that after leaving the UK would have "no institutional rights, no presence in the institutions" and "no voting rights" – indicating that the UK would have no say over rules it would have to implement in the period.

On Friday, May met President of the European Council Donald Tusk in a bid to gain approval for her offer to pay a “divorce bill” which may now total £40bn, and give guarantees over the Irish border and citizens’ rights.

She is desperate for EU leaders to approve her offer at a December meeting of the European Council, and allow talks to move on to settling transition and future trade – with her own political survival in part depending on it.