Britain and the EU enter the final stretch of the Brexit negotiations with renewed hope of a deal being struck within days after Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen agreed to “go the extra mile” and ordered the resumption of talks in Brussels.

As the prime minister played down expectations following a telephone conversation with the European commission president, EU embassies in Brussels were briefed that “progress has been made” and that “the next days will be important”. UK negotiators are expected to stay in Brussels until at least Tuesday.

There were reports over the weekend that government sources had put the chances of no deal at 80%. The leaders’ phone call at noon Brussels time on Sunday had been presented as a point by which a “firm decision” would be made on the prospects of a trade and security deal, with Johnson saying on Friday that it was “very, very likely” the talks would end in failure.

In the event, shortly after the phone call, Von der Leyen and Johnson released a joint statement saying: “Despite the exhaustion after almost a year of negotiations, despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over, we think it is responsible at this point to go the extra mile.”

It said the two sides had a responsibility to keep on working. “We had a useful phone call this morning. We discussed the major unresolved topics. Our negotiating teams have been working day and night over recent days..

“We have accordingly mandated our negotiators to continue the talks and to see whether an agreement can even at this late stage be reached.”

However, in a separate statement, Johnson said he had briefed the cabinet to be ready for a no-deal exit.

“The commission is very determined to keep the negotiations the way that they have been done between us, and that’s fine,” he said. “The most likely thing now is of course that we have to get ready for WTO [World Trade Organization] terms, Australia terms, and don’t forget everybody, we’ve made huge preparations for four and a half years … perhaps more intensively in the last couple of years.”

He added: “I think that the UK should continue to try. And I think that’s what the people of this country would want me to do. We’re going to continue to try and we’re going to try with all our hearts and we’ll be as creative as we possibly can. But what we can’t do is compromise on that fundamental nature of what Brexit is all about.”

The former cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith said MPs now expected that the talks would go to the wire, though others said the negotiations must be done in time for parliament to scrutinise the deal.

“It is dawning on European leaders that we are serious about leaving without a deal,” Duncan Smith said. “We are now at the end of the beginning. Between now and the 31st is where we will get serious compression.”

He said Johnson would have a “problem back home” if there was any give from the UK side on the level playing field terms. However, he said a short extension to allow for ratification might even be acceptable as long as a deal was done by the 31st.

MSN