Theresa May has appeared to play down the importance of EU leaders formally authorising the next stage of Brexit talks as she insisted negotiations on trade will happen "at some point".

The Prime Minister suggested the "offer" she made during her recent speech in Florence had begun to "change some thinking" across Europe on Brexit, despite EU bosses recently presenting a pessimistic view of negotiations moving beyond divorce talks.

Britain has been told to achieve "sufficient progress" on three key withdrawal issues - the financial settlement, citizens' rights and Northern Ireland's border - before negotiations can turn to future UK-EU trading arrangements.

Mrs May had hoped her Florence address would push Brexit talks past their current impasse on those issues - especially the so-called exit bill - in time for trade negotiations to begin later this year.

But speaking to Sky News' Political Editor Faisal Islam at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, the Prime Minister appeared to dampen the prospects of the EU declaring "sufficient progress" has been met when national leaders meet at a Brussels summit later this month.


She said: "I've put an offer out there as to what the future partnership for the EU and UK could be, now we wait to hear from the EU what their response is."

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Mrs May described the European Parliament's overwhelming support for a resolution on Tuesday, which called on EU leaders to declare "sufficient progress has not yet been made" on Brexit, as not "a particularly unexpected one".

She added: "The question isn't so much around this formal declaration of sufficient progress, the question is are people now ready to think about what future partnership between the EU and UK will be?

"We have to get to that at some point, I believe it's possible to get to a good, deep and special partnership because it's good not just for the UK, but it's good for the EU as well.

"And what I hear is that people are starting to think about that."

The Tory conference has been dominated by Boris Johnson's second major intervention on Brexit in the space of two weeks, in which the Foreign Secretary set out his "red lines" for negotiations.

But Mrs May attempted to dismiss Cabinet divisions by declaring "leadership isn't just about being surrounded by yes men", while adding Mr Johnson was "part of the Cabinet that agreed that position in the Florence speech and that's the position we take into the negotiations and we take forward with other EU leaders".

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Image: Mrs May brushed off Boris Johnson's Brexit interventions

The Prime Minister also brushed off a suggestion her party was now in fear of Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party, following the Tories' dismal General Election result, as Mrs May pointed to conference announcements on tuition fees and housing.

"What we saw at the Labour Party conference last week was Jeremy Corbyn making lots of promises that he can't deliver," she said.

"The big difference at this conference is, because of the approach we take - the balanced approach we take to our economy - we know that when we stand up and say we're going to do things to improve peoples' lives we will actually be able to deliver on those."