LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May is working toward unlocking brexit talks at an EU summit later this month and, despite there being more work to be done, has made good progress, her spokesman said on Wednesday.

Asked whether there was any truth in reports that there would be no deal with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party over the border with EU member Ireland this week, the spokesman said: “As the PM said earlier this week, good progress has been made but there is work still to do.”

“We continue to work towards making further progress at the EU Council later this month.”

Meanwhile, Britons are increasingly critical of the government’s handling of Brexit negotiations and pessimistic about their outcome, according to new polling on Wednesday.

The National Centre for Social Research found that the proportion of Britons who think the government is handling talks badly rose from 41 percent in February to 55 percent in July to 61 percent in October.

The number predicting Britain would get a bad deal in Brussels also rose from 37 percent in February to 44 percent in July to 52 percent in October.

In the most recent polling only 19 percent thought Britain would obtain a good deal, the polling found.

The results were based on a survey of 2,200 people.

“It might be thought the increased pessimism is primarily the result of Remain voters becoming increasingly disenchanted with the Brexit process,” senior research fellow John Curtice said.

“However, this is not what happened. Rather, pessimism has become much more widespread among those who voted Leave” in last year’s Brexit referendum.

But Curtice added that voters Criticise the Brexit process “rather than draw the conclusions that the act of leaving is misguided”.

“A difficult Brexit could simply prove politically costly for (British Prime Minister Theresa) May and her beleaguered government rather than a catalyst for a change of heart on Brexit,” he said. — Agencies