Brussels will “retain all the controls” over swathes of British regulation under the Brexit deal struck by Theresa May, EU negotiators have told member states.

A leaked diplomatic note from a meeting between Commission officials and ambassadors from the EU’s 27 countries reveals how Brussels views the “level playing field” rules signed up to by the prime minister.

“We should be in the best negotiation position for the future relationship. This requires the customs union as the basis of the future relationship,” deputy chief negotiator Sabine Weyand said, according to the note seen by The Times newspaper.

“They must align their rules but the EU will retain all the controls. They apply the same rules. UK wants a lot more from future relationship, so EU retains its leverage.”

The binding clauses would mean the UK would be tied to EU rules on workers’ rights, environmental protections, and state aid while the so-called backstop applies – which everyone in Brussels believes it will for quite some time.

The provisions are enraging some Tory Brexiteers, who see Britain’s departure from the EU as an opportunity to strip out what they see as excessive regulations and rights for workers.

“She hasn’t so much struck a deal as surrendered to Brussels and given in to everything they want and tried to frustrate Brexit that it’s not so much a vassal state anymore as a slave state,” unofficial rebellion leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said, articulating the views of many of Ms May’s MPs.

Remainers also rounded on the leak. Dominic Grieve QC, a Tory MP and the former attorney general, said: “Speaking in private Sabine Weyand has been brutally honest about what the Prime Minister’s deal will really mean.”

He added: “I could not look my constituents in the eye and say this would be a better deal than the one we have as a member of the EU and so I will vote against it and instead I will vote to hand the final decision back to the public. A choice between this miserable Brexit and no deal is no choice at all. The British public deserve a real choice between leaving the EU on these terms or sticking with the deal we’ve got inside the EU.”

But speaking on Wednesday morning Theresa May loyalist William Hague urged Tories to ignore the “leak overnight from somebody you have never heard of before” and to back the plan, arguing that Brexit could be thwarted if it was ditched.

The leaked written account of the meeting seen by the newspaper also suggests that Britain “would have to swallow a link between access to products and fisheries in future agreements” for the future relationship. The claim is political dynamite because some Brexiteers want the UK to be able to exclude EU fishing boats from British waters after the country leaves.

We will not comment on the various press reports over the past 24 hours. European Commission spokesperson

Cabinet ministers are being strong-armed to support the deal, with some deemed “key” to its approval call in for one-on-one meetings with the Prime Minister ahead of a moment-of-truth meeting on Wednesday.

The final text of the draft withdrawal agreement has not been made public, meaning ministers must either decode the vast legal agreement themselves or rely on Downing Street’s interpretation of it.

EU ambassadors will meet simultaneously in Brussels this afternoon to examine the agreement, and be briefed by EU officials – though the full sign-off process from member states is expected to take longer.

“It’s going to be a thorough information on the state of play,” a spokesperson for the European Commission said.

Even if the Prime Minister can secure the support of her own cabinet it looks increasingly unlikely that she will be able to get the plan through the House of Commons, with opposition from Labour, Tory eurosceptics, and the DUP now looking more certain than ever.

Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures An abandoned shop is seen in Mullan, Co Monaghan. The building was home to four families who left during the Troubles. The town was largely abandoned after the hard border was put in place during the conflict. Mullan has seen some regeneration in recent years, but faces an uncertain future with Brexit on the horizon Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A defaced ‘Welcome to Northern Ireland’ sign stands on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Mervyn Johnson owns a garage in the border town of Pettigo, which straddles the counties of Donegal and Fermanagh. ‘I’ve been here since 1956, it was a bit of a problem for a few years. My premises has been blown up about six or seven times, we just kept building and starting again,’ Johnson said laughing. ‘We just got used to it [the hard border] really but now that it’s gone, we wouldn't like it back again’ Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Farmer Gordon Crockett’s Coshquin farm straddles both Derry/Londonderry in the North and Donegal in the Republic. ‘At the minute there is no real problem, you can cross the border as free as you want. We could cross it six or eight times a day,’ said Crockett. ‘If there was any sort of obstruction it would slow down our work every day’ Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures John Murphy flies the European flag outside his home near the border village of Forkhill, Co Armagh Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Potter Brenda McGinn stands outside her Mullan, Co Monaghan, studio – the former Jas Boylan shoe factory which was the main employer in the area until it shut down due to the Troubles. ‘When I came back, this would have been somewhere you would have driven through and have been quite sad. It was a decrepit looking village,’ said McGinn, whose Busy Bee Ceramics is one of a handful of enterprises restoring life to the community. ‘Now this is a revitalised, old hidden village’ Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Union Flag colours painted on kerbstones and bus-stops along the border village of Newbuildings, Co Derry/Londonderry Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Grass reflected in Lattone Lough, which is split by the border between Cavan and Fermanagh, seen from near Ballinacor, Northern Ireland Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Donegalman David McClintock sits in the Border Cafe in the village of Muff, which straddles Donegal and Derry/Londonderry Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures An old Irish phone box stands alongside a bus stop in the border town of Glaslough, Co Monaghan Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Billboards are viewed from inside a disused customs hut in Carrickcarnon, Co Down, on the border with Co Louth in the Republic Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Seamus McQuaid takes packages that locals on the Irish side of the border have delivered to his business, McQuaid Auto-Parts, to save money on postal fees, near the Co Fermanagh village of Newtownbutler. ‘I live in the south but the business is in the North,’ said McQaid. "I wholesale into the Republic of Ireland so if there’s duty, I’ll have to set up a company 200 yards up the road to sell to my customers. I’ll have to bring the same product in through Dublin instead of Belfast’ Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A disused Great Northern Railway line and station that was for customs and excise on the border town of Glenfarne, Co Leitrim Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Alice Mullen, from Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland, does her shopping at a former customs post on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh. ‘I’d be very worried if it was a hard border, I remember when people were divided. I would be very afraid of the threat to the peace process, it was a dreadful time to live through. Even to go to mass on a Sunday, you’d have to go through checkpoints. It is terribly stressful,’ said Mullen. ‘All those barricades and boundaries were pulled down. I see it as a huge big exercise of trust and I do believe everyone breathed a sigh of relief’ Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A bus stop and red post box stand in the border town of Jonesborough, Co Armagh Reuters

A European Commission spokesperson told reporters in Brussels: “The European Union and United Kingdom negotiators have been working intensively over the past few days to agree on the elements of a withdrawal agreement and an outline on the political declaration of the framework of the future relationship.

“Our chief negotiator Michel Barnier briefed the college of commissioners yesterday in Strasbourg. You will appreciate that there is an on-going process in London and Brussels right now as we speak. The British cabinet will meet at 3pm today Brussels time and the European Commission will also debrief the EU27 member states this afternoon.