FILE PHOTO: Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds, speaks to the media outside 10 Downing Street in central London, Britain June 15, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville

DUBLIN (Reuters) - The European Union’s “intransigence” in Brexit negotiations is the reason for the real prospect of Britain leaving the EU without a deal, the deputy leader of the Northern Irish party backing Britain’s minority government said on Friday.

“The Dublin government and the EU has weaponized the idea of an Irish backstop against the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland’s position within it. Their intransigence is now causing the real prospect of a no deal,” the Democratic Unionist Party’s Nigel Dodds said in a statement, adding that nobody wanted that.

“We will judge any proposals about the way forward against the test of whether they preserve and respect the political, constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom with no part hived off into separate EU arrangements, and deliver a sensible overall Brexit deal for the United Kingdom.”