THERESA May's third attempt to get the House of Commons to back her deal with the EU withdrawal deal failed to get the number of votes required although she got the backing of all of Wiltshire's MPs.

Outside of the county 34 Tory MPs voted against the deal along with the Northern Irish party the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Labour and the minor parties such as the Scottish Nationalists and Liberal Democrats.

The government lost the vote on Friday afternoon (March 29) by 344 votes to 286, a margin of 58, which means the country has missed an EU deadline to delay Brexit to 22 May and leave with a deal.

Now the prime minister has hinted she may have a fourth attempt to pressure MPs to vote for her deal next week which could be up against an alternative Common Market 2 plan put forward by parliament. If both fail to get a majority in the House of Commons then a longer delay is envisaged with a General Election later this year. Nobody knows how it will turn out, least of all the Government as the EU have only extended the present deadline to April 12 if there is no agreement. MPs have voted against a no deal on that date so the only option would be to revoke Article 50 or beg the EU for a year or more's delay.

The North Wiltshire MP James Gray had previously voted against the PM's deal but came into line for the third vote fearing it could mean no Brexit. He was joined by MPs Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg.