Top EU officials are casting doubts over the ability of British Prime Minister Theresa May to follow through on her pledges on Brexit during this week’s major address in Florence and have also dismissed the intervention of foreign secretary Boris Johnson as irrelevant, reveals shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer.

According to The Guardian, all concerned parties in the EU negotiation team, Keir Starmer said “high expectations” in Brussels over the prime minister’s speech in Florence on Friday were tempered by concerns over her weakness.

• Revealing the EU’s expectation of PM May

Starmer said those he had met during high-level meetings in Brussels on Wednesday, including the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, his deputy Sabine Weyand, and Martin Selmayr, the renowned chief of staff to EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, were deeply sceptical of May’s ability to “deliver” on any of her promises .

“They want to see real progress, and they want a follow through. Not a speech and nothing else”, Starmer said.

He also said the EU wants most importantly to hear May “talking about the money”.

• Starmer’s warnings

Starmer, however, said he was unaware of such figures being discussed with the commission. Speaking from the EU negotiating team’s position, Starmer said, “I’m not sure what Boris said is taken that seriously” – referring to last week statement by the foreign secretary where Johnson said there would be no payments for access to the single market.

“They want progress, and they are concerned about methodology [on the financial settlement] … There is clearly cause for concern about the rate of progress in Brussels just as there is in the UK. And the ball is very much in the prime minister’s court,” Stammer added.

Starmer further stressed that suggestions from some Conservatives that there was the possibility of a bespoke deal for the transition period, rather than a continuation of the status quo, as proposed by Labour and the chancellor, Phillip Hammond, were also damned to fail. “There is a general recognition [in Brussels] that the Labour party has got itself in the right position and sensible position on transitional arrangements. No-one is talking in terms of bespoke deals”, he said.

• The Boris Johnson effect

Starmer shed more light by saying it was clear the prime minister would need to overcome the misgivings of her foreign secretary about a transition period in which the UK continued to enjoy the benefits of the status quo and paying into the budget as a price for access.

“She is going to have to face down Boris Johnson and his fantasy version of Brexit, particularly in relation to financial liabilities, and she needs to abandon some of her inflexible red lines. The worst outcome is that she says nothing, inflames the situation, making progress less likely”, he said.

• Britain should honour its international obligations

Starmer reminded the British government of its promise that the issue of citizens’ rights would have a “quick and easy resolution” but warns a settlement “will only happen if the prime minister gives up on her ideological red line that the only court that would have jurisdiction arising would be the Supreme Court in London – that is not an international resolution body.”

Though labour is not suggesting nor putting figure on the sum the UK should pay the EU to settle the accounts, but Starmer was of the opinion that the British government should provide the EU with clear guidance on its opening analysis of what it was willing to pay.

He said, “We have always said the UK should honour its international obligations. I think the government is right not to put a figure on it, I don’t think the government or the EU should put a figure on it, and I have never challenged David Davis on that. But it is important that the framework is agreed. At the moment there is no clarity on the approach the UK is going to take. A methodology is needed and it is needed essentially by next week.”

• The €20bn poses momentum in negotiations

“The offer may allow us to start talking in greater detail on the financial settlement. However, we think that we are still far from the landing zone,” one EU official told the guardian while referring to the promise of €20bn from the UK government.