Britain will have to contribute financially to the European Union's budget as part of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Brexit reset, according to new EU documents.
The draft negotiating guidelines reveal that the UK must pay into bodies managing food standards and carbon emission rules.
The documents state: "The United Kingdom should contribute financially to supporting the relevant costs associated with the Union's work in these policy areas."
These financial demands follow a political agreement between the PM and the European Commission in May, which laid the groundwork for a new trading relationship.
GETTY
|The UK has agreed to 'dynamically align' with EU rules on food safety, animal welfare and carbon emissions
The deal would see Britain follow EU regulations on food standards and accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.
Despite having to follow these regulations, Britain will be excluded from any role in shaping them.
The documents explicitly state that "neither agreement should give the United Kingdom the right to participate in the Union's decision-making".
The UK has agreed to "dynamically align" with EU rules on food safety, animal welfare and carbon emissions.
GETTY | European President Ursula von der Leyen during the 2025 UK-EU Summit
This means British laws must be updated to match Brussels regulations as they change over time.
European officials will merely "consult the United Kingdom at an early stage of policy-making" to notify the Government about forthcoming rule changes.
Britain must implement any EU regulatory updates within specified deadlines or face legal action from the bloc.
The financial contributions will specifically cover "financial contribution to inter alia the function of the relevant Union agencies, systems and databases to which the United Kingdom should gain appropriate access".
PA | Britain will be have to implement any EU regulatory updates within specified deadlines or it could face legal action
This marks the first time Britain will make payments to the EU budget since Brexit.
The European Court of Justice will oversee both the food standards agreement and the joint UK-EU emissions trading system.
Any disputes that cannot be resolved between Britain and Brussels will be referred to the ECJ, whose judges will "give a ruling which should be binding on the arbitral tribunal".
The alignment requirements extend to multiple sectors including electricity generation, industrial heat generation, maritime transport and aviation.
Conservative critics have strongly condemned the arrangements.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: "We are becoming rule takers and not rule makers. I think it is demeaning and damaging to this Government."
He added: "Demeaning because it makes us look like a tokenistic country on the margins of Europe and damaging because we should be going in the opposite direction.
"We should be looking at our own markets."
European Research Group chairman Mark Francois said: "Sir Keir Starmer's mission to rejoin the EU continues apace. Starmer remains a Remainer, and he always will."
Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice said Labour was "handcuffing the UK back with the EU bureaucracy and burdensome regulations".
He added: "This will mean even lower growth and higher costs. We should be diverging, not aligning."
More From GB News