MPs reject 12 December election plan

Boris Johnson is to try again for a 12 December general election after MPs rejected the plan.

The prime minister will publish a short piece of legislation seeking the support of the Lib Dems and SNP for an election on that date.

It came after he failed to secure the necessary support of two-thirds of MPs under the Fixed Terms Parliament Act.

"This House can no longer keep this country hostage," he told MPs, saying Parliament had become "dysfunctional".

The government comfortably won Monday's vote by 299 votes to 70 - after the Labour frontbench abstained.

However, it fell well short of getting the support of the 434 MPs it needed.

But the PM said he would persist with his efforts to get an early election, telling MPs that "one way or another" the current deadlock had to be broken.

The new legislation he is proposing would only require the support of a simple majority of MPs able to vote, which would be 320.

The Lib Dems and SNP are offering to back an election on Monday, 9 December instead, which they say will prevent any chance of the PM's Brexit deal being approved in the short time before Parliament is dissolved.

They have proposed their own short bill and it remains to be seen whether they will support the government's legislation, which No 10 has said will be "almost identical".

Negotiations between the two sides over a compromise date are reportedly taking place in Westminster.