Diplomats and other civil servants will be expected to spend their time focusing on building relationships with other trading partners around the world instead. The move was announced last night as the tense diplomatic stand off over the deadlocked Brexit negotiations intensified when top Eurocrat Donald Tusk flatly rejected Boris Johnson’s latest proposal for a departure deal. Mr Barclay said: “An incredible amount of time and effort goes into EU meetings with attendance just the tip of the iceberg. Our diligent, world-class officials also spend many hours preparing for them whether in reading the necessary papers or working on briefings.

“From now on we will only go to the meetings that really matter, reducing attendance by over half and saving hundreds of hours.

“This will free up time for ministers and their officials to get on with preparing for our departure on October 31 and seizing the opportunities that lie ahead.”

Officials at the Department for Exiting the EU said his decision reflected the fact that the October 31 scheduled departure date was now “very close”.

Most discussions in Brussels were now focused on how the EU will function once the UK has left and were increasingly irrelevant to Whitehall work.

Ministers and officials will only attend Brussels meetings where the UK “has a significant national interest in the outcome of discussions” such as those covering security, international relations or finance.

The Prime Minister will also continue attending EU Council summits until the country leaves the bloc.

Mr Barclay wanted to “unshackle” staff from Brussels appointments to allow them to apply their talents to the country’s “immediate national priorities” including pioneering trade deals and promoting the Global Britain brand, according to department insiders.

Officials insisted the UK would not “frustrate” the functioning of the EU, with Britain’s vote delegated on a case by case basis to ensure routine Brussels business was not held up.

A statement from the UK Government to the Presidency of the EU said: “The UK Government remains committed to the duty of sincere cooperation and will not stand in the way of the conduct of EU business during this time.

“We are very grateful to you as Presidency for agreeing to exercise our vote, if necessary, at meetings which we do not attend.

“As the Prime Minister made clear, we would wish you to do so in a way that does not prevent the EU27 from moving ahead, and we will work with you to ensure that EU business can continue smoothly.”

The move follows a significant souring in relations between Westminster and Brussels this week.

Mr Tusk, the president of the EU Council, yesterday accused the Prime Minister of wanting to re-establish a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic and not being frank about his negotiating objectives.

His provocative blast came in response to a letter sent by the Prime Minister to the EU on Monday proposing a new guarantee of no customs checks at the Northern Irish border as an alternative to the backstop.

Responding to the letter, Mr Tusk wrote on Twitter: “The backstop is an insurance to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland unless and until an alternative is found.

“Those against the backstop and not proposing realistic alternatives in fact support reestablishing a border. Even if they do not admit it.”

Mr Johnson last night dismissed Mr Tusk’s response as “a bit negative”.

Ahead of a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel this evening and further talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, the Prime Minister promised to tackle the negotiations with “a lot of oomph”.

He said: “At the moment it is absolutely true that our friends and partners are a bit negative.

“I saw what Donald Tusk had to say and it wasn’t redolent of a sense of optimism.

“But I think actually we will get there. There is a real sense now that something needs to be done with this backstop.

“We can’t get it through Parliament as it is. So, I am going to go at it with a lot of oomph as you’d expect, and I hope we will be making some progress in the course of the next few weeks.

“But clearly, one thing that slightly complicates the picture is our EU friends still clearly think there is a possibility that Parliament will block Brexit, and as long as they think that there is a possibility that Parliament will block Brexit, they are unlikely to be minded to make the concessions that we need. So it is going to take a bit of patience.”

Number 10 officials later hit back by warning there was “no prospect of a deal” as long as EU negotiators clung on the discredited backstop border proposal.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “We are deeply invested in the peace, prosperity and security of Northern Ireland and always will be and we have been clear that we will never place infrastructure, checks, or controls at the border.

“But it is clear that unless the Withdrawal Agreement is reopened and the backstop abolished there is no prospect of a deal. It has already been rejected three times by MPs and is simply unviable as a solution, as the PM’s letter makes clear.

“We are ready to negotiate, in good faith, an alternative to the backstop, with provisions to ensure that the Irish border issues are dealt with where they should always have been: in the negotiations on the future agreement between the UK and the EU.”

A string of other EU officials also rubbished the Prime Minister’s offer.

Natasha Bertaud. the European Commission spokesman, above, said that the letter “does not provide a legal, operational solution to prevent the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland.

“It does not set out what any alternative arrangements could be and in fact, it recognises that there is no guarantee that such arrangements will be in place by the end of the transitional period.”

Chancellor Sajid Javid, below, last night further ramped up no-deal Brexit preparations by taking action to ensure British firms exporting to the EU do not face unnecessary customs blockages at European ports.

He announced that HMRC will automatically enrol tens of thousands of firms in a new customs identification system.

More than 88,000 VAT-registered companies across the UK will be allocated an Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number in the next fortnight in order to keep trading with customers and suppliers in the EU after the UK has left.

Mr Javid said: “As the government accelerates its preparation to leave the EU on 31st October, it’s right businesses are prepared too.

“There can be no time for delay which is why HMRC has allocated thousands of businesses with a trading number to ensure they can continue to trade their goods through Europe from day one.

“This will help ease the flow of goods at border points and support businesses to trade and grow.”

In another move, the Department for Communities and Local Government announced an extra £9million to help ensure ports are fully prepared for a no-deal Brexit.

More than £2.6million from the sum will go to local authorities in Kent because of the county’s closeness to the continent.

A total of £5 million will be given to local councils which either have or are near to a major air, land or seaport to ensure they will continue to operate efficiently when the UK leaves the EU on 31 October.

The remaining £4 million will be shared out to local resilience forums (LRFs), partnerships made up of representatives from local public services, across England to support them in their preparations.

Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “From keeping our supply chains running and ensuring goods continue to flow into the country, to putting robust plans in place for every community, local government is playing a vital role in preparing the country to be fully ready to leave the EU on 31 October.

“We have stepped up our preparedness significantly in recent weeks, including by asking every council to appoint a Brexit Lead Officer.

“Now we are releasing an additional £9 million of additional funding today to help local areas get ready for Brexit, whatever the circumstances.”

Around 800 EU meetings to discuss a wide range of issues are scheduled to take place during September and October. 

Yesterday’s announcement will mean UK ministers and officials will now only attend around a third of them.

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