EU trade negotiators will return to London on Thursday to restart Brexit trade talks, after both sides promised to work intensively for a deal.
Downing Street had previously told chief negotiator Michel Barnier there was no point in him coming to the UK unless the EU fundamentally shifted its position.
But following a telephone conversation between the EU chief negotiator and his UK counterpart Lord Frost, a Downing Street spokesperson said the UK was ready to try and bridge remaining divides and would welcome Mr Barnier’s team to London.
Mr Barnier had earlier on Wednesday told the European Parliament that a deal was within reach if both sides were ready to make compromises.
Lord Frost discussed the implications of this statement and the state of play with Mr Barnier earlier today, the No 10 spokesperson told reporters.
On the basis of that conversation we are ready to welcome the EU team to London to resume negotiations later this week. We have jointly agreed a set of principles for handling this intensified phase of talks.
They added that Mr Barnier had acknowledged the UK’s established red lines and that the British side was ready, with the EU, to see if it is possible to bridge them in intensive talks.
Lord Frost said that intensive talks would happen every day and begin in the afternoon on Thursday 22 October in London.
A new set of organising principles for talks agreed by both sides says both parties have agreed to intensify negotiations and that discussions will take place across all subjects simultaneously a key demand of the UK side.
Both sides will work on their own legal texts and try to find areas of convergence until they have a consolidated text on which they both agree, the new principles say.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said there was “hard work needed” and “no time to lose”.
Negotiating teams have been stood down since Friday after EU leaders embarrassed Mr Johnson at a summit by saying any deal depended on the UK alone making moves. Downing Street dropped out of talks and said the EU had effectively ended them by putting the emphasis on the UK.