UK must act unilaterally if N.Ireland protocol not replaced quickly - DUP leader

FILE PHOTO: DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson gestures as he speaks during an audience with Northern Ireland's political leaders hosted by the Confederation of British Industry in Northern Ireland (CBI NI), ahead of the upcoming Northern Ireland Assembly elections, at Queens University, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 28, 2022. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

BELFAST (Reuters) -Britain must act to unilaterally overrule parts of the Northern Ireland protocol if talks on overhauling post-Brexit trading arrangements are not rapidly completed, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) told Reuters on Thursday.

Britain and the European Union have spent months trying to break a deadlock over how to remove many of the checks on goods coming from the rest of the United Kingdom agreed under the protocol. A British minister said on Thursday that the sides were at an impasse.