THERESA May “will succeed” in getting a Brexit deal, Jeremy Hunt has suggested but he made clear there remained a lot of work to do “to get there".

The Foreign Secretary had a clear message for the doubters. "British politics is littered with the graveyards of people who have predicted the demise of Theresa May and been proved wrong so, I think she will succeed,” he declared.

His comments came as the Prime Minister prepares to head off to Salzburg later today for an informal summit with fellow EU leaders when, tomorrow over dinner, she will argue for her Chequers Plan, stressing how she needs Brussels to move to help her get her proposal through Westminster.

Mr Hunt became the first British minister to deliver a speech in Japanese while making his initial official visit to Japan since becoming Foreign Secretary.

He held talks with Shinzo Abe, the Japanese Prime Minister, and Taro Kono, the country’s Foreign Minister, to discuss a range of issues, including the future UK-Japan economic partnership and security on the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking about Brexit, the Secretary of State said: "I don't think it's brinkmanship. If we can't come to an agreement, then the default is that we will leave the EU on March 29.

"So that could happen. But I don't think it's in anyone's interest for that to happen. So that's why we are cautiously optimistic that we will get a deal but there is a lot of work to do to get there."

Mr Hunt said Mrs May would speak for the whole country following his predecessor Boris Johnson's public criticisms of her Chequers blueprint.

“Of course, Boris Johnson doesn't agree with some of the policy decisions that she's taken but Theresa May has to speak not just for the 52 per cent who voted for Brexit, she has to speak for 100 per cent of the country and she has to find a way that builds bridges and unifies the country and that's what I'm confident she will do," he stressed.

Mr Hunt, who spent over a year in the country in his 20s learning the language, put his skills to the test when he addressed representatives of UK-Japan exchange programmes in Tokyo, stating in Japanese: "To all Japanese people, Britain is always your friend. I look forward to working with you all."

On North Korea, he added: "The lesson of the last few years is that the pressure works. The sanctions are very important. And so the UK and Japan and other countries have been working hard to enforce those sanctions and we stand ready to relax those when we see concrete evidence of a change from North Korea."

The Foreign Secretary avoided a repeat of his earlier gaffe on a visit to China this year when he sought to curry favour with his hosts by telling them his wife was Chinese, only to refer to her as Japanese by mistake.

Earlier, Dominic Raab told Brussels it was time for the "compromises" made by the UK to be "matched on the EU side".

In a sign that the Brexit talks could go to the wire, the EU27 is preparing for a final deal to be struck at an emergency summit in November, rather than the scheduled October meeting previously targeted by both sides in the negotiations.

The deal has to be finalised well in advance of the UK's March 29 2019 exit from the bloc so the parliaments in Westminster and Strasbourg can sign off on the agreement.

In Brussels, Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, was briefing ministers from EU governments today on remaining issues in the divorce talks, including the Irish border, as well as the framework for the UK's future relationship with the EU.

Arriving at the meeting in the Belgian capital, Lord Callanan, the Brexit Minister, said: "If we are to get a deal, there has to be compromises from both sides and we look forward to seeing what the EU side has to say about this."

His comments echoed those of the Brexit Secretary, who set out the UK's position in an interview with journalists from newspapers across the EU.

Setting out the UK's hopes, Mr Raab said the Salzburg summit would be "an important milestone" and "a stepping stone" to a deal.

But he made clear the UK was looking for further movement from the EU on the Irish border.

He branded Mr Barnier's "backstop" proposals - which would see Northern Ireland remain in the EU customs area - unworkable, because they would create a border in the Irish Sea and failed to respect the constitutional integrity of the UK.

"What I'm not going to do is to say that I would refuse to entertain any further proposals that the EU comes up with but they've got to be respecting the equities that we've set out," he told correspondents from European newspapers, including Germany's Die Welt, France's Le Monde and the Irish Times.

In a high-profile Panorama interview on Monday, Mrs May framed the decision facing the country as a choice between her deal or no deal.

But with large numbers of Tory hard Brexiteers openly rejecting her Chequers Plan, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said the scene was set for a second referendum.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today: "Growing numbers of people - we are already seeing it from senior Labour people and a few Conservatives - will say that the only way forward is to take this back to the public and say: 'Do you accept what Theresa May has negotiated or would you rather stay in the European Union?'"

A demonstration at the Labour conference in Liverpool on Sunday will add to pressure on Jeremy Corbyn to throw his weight behind calls for a second referendum.

But Mr Raab rejected talk of a second vote, saying: "Even if that's what people want to do, it's difficult to see how it could be done in time and we wouldn't facilitate it."

Donald Tusk, the European Council President, said he wanted to avoid the "catastrophe" of a no-deal Brexit.

In a letter to EU leaders he said they should discuss arrangements for the "final phase" of the Brexit talks "including the possibility of calling another European Council in November".

He said the EU leaders should also reconfirm the need for a "legally operational backstop" on Ireland to avoid a hard border.

Mr Tusk added that leaders should work on "limiting the damage" caused by Brexit, saying: “Unfortunately, a no-deal scenario is still quite possible. But if we all act responsibly, we can avoid a catastrophe."