Iceland is frustrated with growing pressure from the EU to accept extra rules on energy and food standards, the country's finance minister has told the Telegraph, as he warned that the EU was beginning to view the Nordic country's independence as a “nuisance.”

Bjarni Benediktsson said the EU's desire for "deeper integration" was making it more difficult for Iceland to have special exemptions in areas which risked harming national interests.

His comments highlight the difficulties the UK would face if it adopted the “soft Brexit” model pushed by campaigners and Labour MPs who wish to stay as close as possible to the EU on trading terms.

“Those that are for integration are stepping up the pace and if that is realised there will be even less tolerance for special implementation in the European Economic Area,” Mr Benediktsson said.

“A very new example is raw meat and the free flow of goods. The European line is one for all, all for one, no special rules for anybody. But we are a special example, as in Iceland there is no salmonella, you almost can’t talk about it as a problem, as it is in member states.”

"If you add to that antibiotics, I mean they are hardly used in Iceland, in comparison to the poultry industry in Spain."