Prime Minister Boris Johnson has lost a bid to call an early general election to break the Brexit deadlock.

The Prime Minister suffered a third major blow in less than 24 hours when lawmakers rejected his motion to dissolve Parliament and call an early election.

Fifty-six lawmakers voted against the motion but with only 298 votes in favour, it failed to reach the required majority of two thirds.

Since becoming Prime Minister in July, Johnson has repeatedly said he didn’t want an early election.

He changed his tune after losing a key battle on Tuesday, when Parliament voted to seize the parliamentary agenda in order to push through a bill outlawing a no-deal Brexit.

That bill was debated and voted through earlier on Wednesday. Johnson said that taking the no deal option off the table means his negotiating position in Brussels would be weakened.