FILE PHOTO - Nigel Dodds, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party speaks, flanked by other DUP MP's, outside the Houses of Parliament, London, Britain December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

LONDON (Reuters) - Infrastructure will not be needed on the Northern Irish border whether a Brexit deal is reached or not, the deputy leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party said on Wednesday.

Nigel Dodds, whose DUP props up Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives in parliament, said the final Brexit deal which is put to lawmakers is likely to be different from the so-called Chequers proposals put forward by the British leader and a competing plan offered by Brexit campaigners in her party.

“Any plan that will eventually be discussed in parliament at the outcome of the negotiations will probably in all certainty be not the plans that have currently been put forward,” he told reporters.

“Whether it is Chequers or whether it is a free trade agreement or indeed in the event of a no deal, you do not need infrastructure at the border.”