Donald Tusk warns Theresa May the next round of Brexit talks will be even tougher than the first

EXHAUSTED Theresa May was yesterday warned Brexit will only get TOUGHER - with 10 months to strike the outline of a free trade deal.

EU Council chief Donald Tusk said thrashing out the terms of a future trade agreement would be far harder than agreeing to the “first phase” of talks.

And he reminded the UK that we’d have to abide by the full suite of EU rules – including unlimited EU immigration in any two-year transition scheme that runs from Brexit to 2021.

Speaking after the Brexit breakthrough in Brussels yesterday he said: “Breaking up is hard, but building a new relationship is harder.”

Eurocrats want the outline terms of a future trading relationship between the UK and the EU to be agreed by October next year – five months before Brexit day at the end of March 2019.

Only then could “real negotiations” over a trade agreement take place.

EU officials added that they had yet to see any “clarity” from Theresa May over what the UK believe the future relationship should look like.

Ministers were due to discuss their preferred "end state" for Brexit on Tuesday – but this has now been delayed by a week.

One EU official yesterday said: “The UK has not been particularly specific. It has been settling out a number of red lines, but what the UK has been saying so far still does not seem entirely realistic to us.”

Business groups desperate for certainty over the future trade arrangement yesterday lauded Theresa May for agreeing the first phase of the "withdrawal" process. The CBI said it was an “early Christmas present”.

Institute of Directors’ director general Stephen Martin added: “This doesn’t mean the hard work has been done, far from it.

“But it does mean we are now very close to discussing transitional arrangements and our future trading relationship with the EU.

“We call on the UK and the EU to build on this positive momentum going into the New Year. It is overwhelmingly in the interests of both sides to begin working on our future economic relationship.”

Discussions on a two-year "standstill" transition phase – that would effectively delay Brexit by two years from 2019 – and give sides more time to finalise a trade deal are expected to take place early in the New Year.

Donald Tusk yesterday reiterated Britain would have to abide by EU rules – and unlimited EU immigration – for the entire two years of a transition period.

But the EU conceded Britain would be able to begin negotiations about future trade deals with other countries around the world during this two- year phase.

Mr Tusk said: “While being satisfied with today’s agreement, which is obviously the personal success of Prime Minister Theresa May, let us remember that the most difficult challenge is still ahead.

“Since the Brexit referendum, a year and a half has passed.

“So much time has been devoted to the easier part of the task.

“And now, to negotiate a transition arrangement and the framework for our future relationship, we have de facto less than a year.”