THERESA May has spoken to European leaders ahead of a meeting this evening with key Brussels figures as David Mundell brushed aside the notion that the Prime Minister was in a panic over Brexit.

Michael Russell, the Scottish Government’s Brexit minister, told David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, during an intergovernmental meeting in Whitehall, that a no-deal scenario would be catastrophic. He later told reporters: “The prospect of having no deal is utterly unacceptable and would be disastrous for Scotland... disastrous for the whole of these islands.”

In a telephone conversation this afternoon, Mrs May and French President Emmanuel Macron "discussed progress" in the Brussels talks and agreed to go over the "next steps" on the margins of a crunch summit of EU leaders later this week, Downing Street said.

The PM also discussed "the importance of maintaining constructive progress" in negotiations with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and reiterated Britain's commitment to maintaining a soft Irish border.

Mrs May has spoken to several EU counterparts in recent days, including Germany's Angela Merkel and Holland's Mark Rutte.

The phone calls took place just hours before her showdown in Brussels with Jean-Claude Juncker, the Commission President, and Michel Barnier, the EU chief negotiator, just days after they said exit negotiations were deadlocked.

Downing Street sources insisted the meeting had "been in the diary for weeks" but the announcement caused surprise in Westminster and comes after last week's negotiations ended with little movement.

Over dinner, the PM will hope to end the stalemate over withdrawal issues including a "divorce bill", the Irish border, and citizens' rights, that are holding up talks on a post-Brexit trading relationship.

Mr Davis is expected to give a Commons statement on progress on Tuesday.

After the fifth round of exit negotiations were brought to a close last week, Mr Barnier said he would not recommend to EU leaders that talks move on to trade when he attends the European Council summit on Thursday.

Mrs May's deputy Damian Green said the UK and EU were "moving closer" to agreement on citizens' rights, acknowledged the divorce bill was "one of the most difficult" withdrawal issues, and stressed the Government would "keep making constructive suggestions".

Asked if the PM’s surprise dinner engagement was a sign of panic, Mr Mundell replied: “I completely dismiss that. It’s appropriate that the PM engage in the discussion; she has always been clear she would directly engage in the discussions.”

He went on: “It is, of course, incumbent on the Government to prepare for no deal. We can’t control whether there’s a deal; there are 27 other parties in this negotiation. But we are not planning or preparing to have no deal. We want there to be a deal but it would be wrong not to take steps to plan for that contingency.”

However, the PM, whose flight to Belgium was not affected by Storm Ophelia, was not expected to make any new offers on the withdrawal issues at her meeting with Mr Juncker and Mr Barnier.

Her spokesman told a Westminster briefing: "The PM set out our current position in Florence - as I have said many times we believe that did create momentum and has had a constructive response, that's our position."

Earlier, Boris Johnson urged the EU to "get on" with beginning "serious" Brexit negotiations on trade, adding: "It's ready for the great ship to go down the slipway and on to the open sea and for us to start some serious conversations about the future and the new relationship".

And Downing Street echoed the Foreign Secretary's comments.

The spokesman said: "The Prime Minister has said on a number of occasions in the House and elsewhere that the UK and herself have made an offer in the from of the Florence speech and that she looks forward to the EU27 reciprocating."

Also attending the dinner at 6.30pm local time in Brussels, which is expected to last around 90 minutes, are Number 10 Brexit adviser Olly Robbins and Mr Juncker's chief of staff Martin Selmayr.

Mr Selmayr was widely blamed for leaking details of a previous private dinner at Number 10 in April, when Mr Juncker reportedly said he left "10 times more sceptical" than when he arrived.

The leak led to an angry response from Mrs May on the steps of Downing Street in which she warned that "there are some in Brussels who do not want these talks to succeed".

Asked whether Mrs May had demanded assurances that there would be no repeat of the leak after Monday's dinner, her spokesman said: "The Prime Minister has had a number of constructive conversations with Jean-Claude Juncker. We expect this to be a constructive dinner."

The Commission President declined to comment on his expectations for the dinner but suggested that details of their discussions would be revealed in a "post mortem" after it had concluded.