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The EU is preparing to give its Brexit negotiator new instructions to help close a deal with Britain, in a conciliatory move that will bolster Theresa May as she suffers savage attacks from Brexiters at home.

After a weekend in which Boris Johnson, former UK foreign secretary, lambasted Mrs May’s Brexit strategy as wrapping “a suicide vest around the British constitution”, any positive signals from the EU would provide a rare fillip for the British prime minister.

An informal summit in Salzburg this month between the EU’s 27 remaining leaders is emerging as one of the most significant Brexit discussions since the bloc first set its strategy for talks.

Ambassadors in Brussels have been told that, as well as the planned timing of any deal and sticking points such as the Irish border, the meeting will discuss whether to issue additional guidance to Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator.

If approved, the move to update Mr Barnier’s instructions would help to “serve as a sort of mandate to do the deal” according to a senior EU diplomat.

Senior British officials have long complained that Mr Barnier has interpreted his instructions too rigidly, leaving talks deadlocked. Dominic Raab, Brexit secretary, has blamed “dogmatic legalism” for limiting progress in talks.

EU member states insist they remain firmly behind Mr Barnier. “I don’t know how much you need to change, frankly speaking,” said the EU diplomat, adding that the most important point of new guidelines was “the symbolism.”

Two other officials on the EU side confirmed the planned discussion in Salzburg on supplementing the guidelines for Mr Barnier. One EU diplomat dubbed it a “save Theresa” operation.

While the EU continues to have fundamental reservations about Mrs May’s Chequers plan for close integration with the EU after Brexit, the bloc’s main priority is concluding a withdrawal deal with the UK, including guarantees to avoid a hard border across the island of Ireland. Diplomats expect many hard choices over future relations to be left until after Brexit.

EU leaders have issued instructions to their negotiator three times since the 2016 Brexit referendum, framing the union’s collective response to divorce issues, the transition, and the terms of a non-binding “political declaration” on future relations.

If leaders agree at the September 20 meeting, diplomats expect a final set of guidelines to be formally adopted at the October summit of EU leaders, setting the stage for a special Brexit summit in November, where the two sides would aim to conclude talks.

It all depends on what they think they [the UK] can sell back home. There are some things that will not work. We do have a requirement for a legally operable backstop [for the Irish border]. The rest is solvable

Mrs May’s domestic problems in delivering Brexit were thrown into stark relief on Sunday as Mr Johnson — who quit as foreign secretary over her Brexit plan — launched his frontal attack on her leadership.

He claimed Mrs May’s strategy amounted to a “humiliation” and that she had been “mad” to put the Northern Ireland border at the heart of negotiations.

The prime minister faces a torrid Conservative conference in Birmingham in early October, with Mr Johnson planning to address up to 1,000 party activists at a “Chuck Chequers” rally.

She is hoping that EU leaders will throw her a lifeline by making clear that they want Mr Barnier to show enough flexibility to achieve a final deal. “We aren’t expecting the EU to change Barnier’s guidelines, but we hope the leaders will tell them to interpret them in such a way as to make a deal possible,” said one senior British official.

EU negotiators and diplomats dismiss the idea that the present guidelines are too inflexibly drafted and say no core principles will be revised.

One negotiator said the revised guidelines might acknowledge Britain’s openness to a bigger role for the European Court of Justice, particularly in areas of justice and security affairs.

One of the most important topics of the Salzburg discussion will be the form of the “political declaration” planned on future relations, and the level of detail and precision that is required.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, originally pushed for an unambiguous and clear statement, which would underscore what Britain would lose as a non-member of the union.

However in private discussions Berlin has since signalled it would be willing to see the a more fudged statement, which principally aims to help Mrs May secure support for the accompanying withdrawal treaty in the House of Commons.

“It all depends on what they think they can sell back home,” said an EU diplomat involved in Brexit talks. “There are some things that will not work. We do have a requirement for a legally operable backstop [for the Irish border]. The rest is solvable.”

Many EU officials see the Chequers plan as unworkable, riven with contradictions and in certain parts antithetical to the EU’s founding principles.

But to date the EU side has avoided aggressive attacks on Chequers, seeking to emphasise points of convergence. An important question for EU leaders is whether they are happy to leave some issues — such as customs arrangements — ambiguous so they are resolved only after Brexit day.