MEMBERS of Parliament have rejected Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to hold an early general election for the second time.

The vote ended 293-46 in favour of the snap vote, with most Labour MPs and the SNP abstaining, but it fell short of the two thirds needed under the Fixed Term Parliament Act.

Gazette readers were heavily in favour of a general election in a poll on the website, with 66% saying they do want to head to the polls.

This was reflected by the way the region's MPs voted, with Maria Miller, Ranil Jayawardena and Kit Malthouse all voting in favour last night.

However, with parliament now suspended until mid-October, it’s unlikely that a general election will take place before the UK is due to leave the EU.

Currently, unless a deal is struck and passed through the Commons, the UK will leave without a deal on October 31.

However, a law blocking a no-deal Brexit gained Royal Assent on Monday, meaning it is now the law of the land.

Unless MPs vote in favour of no-deal, or a deal is passed, the PM must seek an extension to the Article 50 process at the next European Council summit next month.

However, last week, a local MP accused the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of “running scared” of a general election.

Ranil Jayawardena, MP for North East Hampshire, said: “The Prime Minister pledged to deliver Brexit by 31st October so that we can come together again as a country, boost the NHS, improve education, and turbocharge the economy. But we cannot negotiate a good deal with the EU without being willing to walk away – yet that is exactly what MPs voted to stop the government doing on Wednesday.

“Therefore the decision must now go to the people, in a general election, whether they want Boris Johnson to lead negotiations with the EU on 17th October, or Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn has been calling for an election for years; but now he’s running scared because he knows the country has seen through his neomarxist economics and the pretence that Labour respects the result of the referendum.”