Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds speaks at the DUP annual party conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland November 24, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

LONDON (Reuters) - The best way to get a Brexit deal through parliament is for the government to maintain that it would be willing to walk away from talks and leave the bloc without a deal, the deputy leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said.

Prime Minister Theresa May lost the second vote on her Brexit deal on Tuesday, when lawmakers handed her another humiliating defeat. On Wednesday, lawmakers will vote on whether to leave the EU without a deal.

“The best way to get a good deal, the best way to get a deal you can actually vote for is to keep the threat of a no-deal on the table,” Nigel Dodds told Sky News.

“Once you take that threat off, you are bound to be offered terms which are less advantageous in the sure and certain knowledge that the other side have that you’re not going to walk away.”