FILE PHOTO: Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street in London, June 7, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - Former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Monday that newspaper reports of Brussels proposing a technical fix to the issue of the Irish border could allow for a breakthrough on reaching a Brexit deal.

The Times newspaper reported that the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, is working on a new protocol text outlining how to use technology to minimise checks on the border.

“I see that in Brussels they’re now discussing actively some of the technical ways of dealing with this that I think will allow for a breakthrough, allow us to do a proper free trade deal, allow us properly to take back control of our regulatory framework, but also to do a proper Brexit,” Johnson told reporters outside his home.

“Unless we do that... much of the point of Brexit is nullified.”