His comments, a clear sign that Britain intends to completely leave the EU’s freedom of movement for workers system, come as Theresa May on Thursday travels for tense negotiations with her counterparts.

Mrs May will warn EU leaders that they risk losing public confidence if they allow hundreds of thousands of economic migrants into Europe. EU leaders will then hold a dinner without Mrs May in a clear slight to Britain.

Laying down the ground-rules for talks last week, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said that Europe would “take everything step by step, in the right order” and that it was legally impossible to do the two deals over Britain's departure from the EU and its future trade relationship together.

However, senior EU diplomats from some states were last night expressing reservations about the Commission’s hardline approach ahead of Thursday's European Council summit at which the EU 27 will discuss how to handle the Brexit talks.

“The more we dig in [to the detail] the more terrifying it looks,” said an eastern EU diplomat “We have to avoid unpleasant surprises at the end. We need a transitional deal and we are ready to do parallel negotiations.”