UPDATE 1-UK PM front-runner Boris Johnson says trade deal can break Brexit deadlock

Boris Johnson, favoured to become Britain's new prime minister, said on Sunday the country could agree a free trade deal to leave the European Union that would remove the need for one of the more problematic parts of a previous agreement. In his weekly column in The Telegraph newspaper, Johnson said technology could avoid having to stick to the so-called Northern Irish backstop, a part of an agreement with the EU that many lawmakers in Britain's parliament reject. The backstop, an insurance policy to ensure there will be no return to a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland, has become one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the lengthy Brexit talks.