Boris Johnson will hold Brexit talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Luxembourg on Monday, Downing Street has confirmed.
The "working lunch" will be the pair's first face-to-face meeting since the Prime Minister entered Downing Street in July.
It comes as Ireland's Premier Leo Varadkar warned of a "very wide gap" between London and the UK on the issue of the Irish backstop.
Thee Prime Minister, who is visiting Yorkshire today, told one Doncaster trader "we're going to get a deal".
"That's the plan anyway," he said. "And if we don't, we're coming out on October 31. That's what we're going to do. Here we go, that's democracy."
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Meanwhile, a former Supreme Court justice has said it would not be legal for Boris Johnson to apply for an Article 50 extension while simultaneously trying to get the EU to reject it.
Lord Sumption was asked if it would be legal for the Prime Minister to ask for an extension while rubbishing the request at the same time.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
No, of course it wouldn’t. The Bill, or Act as it’s about to become, says that he’s got to apply for an extension. Not only has he got to send the letter, he’s got to apply for an extension.
To send the letter and then try to neutralise it seems to me, plainly, a breach of the Act.
What you’ve got to realise is the courts are not very fond of loopholes.
Tory MP Nigel Evans said Boris Johnson is more likely to call for a vote of no confidence in his own Government or force an election via another means than to go to Brussels to ask for an Article 50 extension.
The joint executive secretary of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs told Today:
I cannot see under the current circumstances Boris Johnson going to Brussels and asking for that extension.
The press pack awaiting the arrival of Boris Johnson in Dublin.
On Sunday, Mr Johnson was in Chevening, the Foreign Secretary's country residence, with his closest aides.
Those assembled are understood to have included chief strategist Dominic Cummings and the team is said to have wargamed how the crucial week ahead could pan out.
With the PM being warned by Justice Secretary Robert Buckland about the "importance of the Rule of Law", following hints that Mr Johnson could be tempted to break the law to deliver Brexit by Halloween, Downing Street looked to double down on pushing for an election.
Meanwhile, The Times has reported that Mr Johnson has essentially disbanded the Europe unit which had led negotiations with Brussels on a Brexit deal.
The group working under chief Brexit negotiator David Frost consists of just four staffers, the paper says.
It did have more than 50 civil servants at the height of negotiations over the original withdrawal agreement, with additions support also provided by various Government departments.
The SNP''s Ian Blackford has called the proroguing of Parliament "the shutting down of democracy".
It looks set to be a busy evening in the Commons.
MPs are also set to debate a petition backed by 1.7 million people demanding prorogation must not be prorogued unless Article 50 is extended.
The bill to block no-deal is set to receive Royal Assent today.
Boris Johnson is expected to increase the pressure on MPs to back a snap general election or face five weeks of watching the Brexit negotiations from the sidelines.
The Prime Minister could prorogue Parliament as early as Monday in a move that would suspend all proceedings until October 14.
However, Mr Johnson will present MPs with a way out of an enforced holiday by giving them another vote on holding a general election before a final decision to prorogue is taken.
Downing Street has until Thursday to suspend Parliament.