LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Britain would not accept a border in the Irish sea and any customs deal with the European Union would only be temporary, the British minister of state for Brexit said on Tuesday.

“There could be no border in the Irish sea. We would not allow the EU to dictate to us on that area,” Martin Callanan told reporters before a meeting of EU affairs ministers in Luxembourg.

“Any customs arrangement that we negotiate must be temporary,” he added.

He insisted that Britain was seeking a deal with its EU partners on its exit from the bloc, “because a no deal would not be a good outcome.”

But he reiterated that the British government was also preparing for a no-deal scenario.