The impasse over the Northern Ireland protocol has been broken after the UK and EU reached a deal on Northern Ireland's post-Brexit trade rules.

The British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen finalised the details at a meeting in London this lunchtime.

It comes 2,441 days since the UK voted to leave the European Union and more than 160 weeks since Brexit came into legal effect.

The details of the negotiations between the bloc and the UK government have been kept strictly under wraps but should be revealed later today.

Mr Sunak put the deal to his cabinet this afternoon; however, a vote by MPs in the Commons is not expected until later in the week.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak welcomes European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen ahead of a Brexit meeting, 27-02-2023. Image: PA Images / Alamy

Mr Sunak is hopeful the deal will win the approval of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) so power-sharing can be restored in Northern Ireland.

DUP support is also viewed as key to convincing Tory Brexiteers to back the deal.

The DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said: "We'll take our time to consider the detail and measure a deal against our seven tests."

Details of the deal are due to be revealed at a joint press conference at around 3:30pm today.

Last year Newstalk’s political correspondent Sean Defoe took a deep dive into the protocol as part of his ‘Let Me Explain’ series.

You can listen back here:

For the day that's in it a reshare of our dummies guide to the Northern Ireland Protocol:https://t.co/IZsu3uLzvY

— Seán Defoe (@SeanDefoe) February 27, 2023