Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker met for pre-dawn meeting this morning to sign off the first round of negotiations, after talks on the Irish border went on through the night.

DUP leader Arlene Foster had been engaged in discussions with the Prime Minsiter on the border into the early hours of this morning. 

Mrs Foster said that "substantial changes" to the text rejected on Monday would mean there was "no red line down the Irish Sea" in the form of a customs barrier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

In a speech in Brussels, after the deal was finalised, Theresa May said there would be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, and the terms of the Good Friday Agreement would be upheld.

She also revealed that none of the UK would fall under jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

Although a figure on the divorce bill is yet to be finalised, an agreement on the terms of the deal has been reached. 

Mrs May said: "After some tough conversations, we've now agreed a settlement that is fair to the British taxpayer. 

“It means that in future we will be able to invest more in our priorities at home, such as housing, schools and the NHS."

The breakthrough means talks can finally move on to the second phase, which covers the future relationship, including a trade deal.

But ex-Ukip leader Mr Farage, who was pivotal in the Brexit campaign, tweeted: "A deal in Brussels is good news for Mrs May as we can now move on to the next stage of humiliation."

The MEP has been calling for Theresa May to be removed as Prime Minister, fearing mutiny within the Tories is making her appear weak, and harming her negotiating strategy.

In a column for the Telegraph, Mr Farage raged: "In the last few months, beginning with her conciliatory speech in Florence, Remain-supporting Mrs May has increasingly given the EU elite hope. Not only is she prepared to make extraordinary and unnecessary contributions to the EU budget, she was even willing to sell out her partners, the DUP, to satisfy Dublin and Brussels.

"Most important of all, she would seemingly be happy for the UK to sign up to a transition deal that would almost certainly last until the next general election, in 2022 – six years after we voted to leave the EU.

"While Juncker and his friends like these concessions, they also appear to have calculated that if Mrs May can hang on in Downing Street a while longer, the weaker she will be perceived to have become, increasing the likelihood of an early general election.

"In such a poll, Juncker and co must hope, a Labour-led coalition would be secured, thereby keeping the UK in the single market and the customs union under the utterly clueless and dangerously vain Jeremy Corbyn.

"In the face of this, the Conservative Party is obviously paralysed with fear."

Already Donald Tusk, President of the EU Council, said Britain will still be under the thumb of Brussels and be forced to pay into the pot.

In a speech, shortly after Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker’s announcement, Mr Tusk said: “As you know the UK has asked for a transition of about two years while remaining part of the single market and customs union and we’ll be ready to discuss this but naturally we have our conditions I propose that during this period the UK will respect the whole of EU law including new law.

“It will respect budgetary commitments, it will respect judicial oversight and of course all related obligations.

“Clearly within the transition period following the UK’s withdrawal EU decision making will continue among the 27 member states, without the UK.

“All of what I have said seems to be the only reasonable solution and it is in the interest of all our citizens that it is agreed as soon as possible.”

Mr Juncker said that the decision on whether to move forward to talks on trade and the transition to a post-Brexit relationship was in the hands of the leaders of the 27 other EU nations, meeting in Brussels at a European Council summit on Thursday, but said he was "confident" they would do so.

The Commission president said: "I will always be sad about this development, but now we must start looking to the future, a future in which the UK will remain a close friend and ally."

Mrs May said that intensive talks over the past few days had delivered "a hard-won agreement in all our interests".

The Prime Minister said that the agreement would guarantee the rights of three million EU citizens in the UK "enshrined in UK law and enforced by British courts".

She said that it included a financial settlement which was "fair to the British taxpayer" and a guarantee that there will be "no hard border" between Northern Ireland and the Republic, preserving the "constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom".

She said that the agreement between the UK and the Commission, being published in a joint report, would offer "welcome certainty" to businesses.

More to follow