Once again, MPs have voted against all alternative options put before them, including a customs union, a Norway model including single market membership, revoking Article 50 and a second referendum.

MPs had been under pressure to come to a consensus view on an alternative to Theresa May’s plan after taking the process out of the prime minister’s hands, a highly unusual move.

Although they have more time to have another go at finding agreement on Wednesday, this is a blow to those including Sir Oliver Letwin who had hoped the process might be able to break the deadlock between Number 10 and parliament.

There will be a sigh of relief in some Conservative quarters but certainly not all, because it does not solve the fundamental issue that there are not enough MPs willing to back the prime minister in order to get her deal through.

Some in the Conservative Party, including the cabinet, fear this impasse could lead to a no-deal Brexit and have suggested they could quit in order to prevent it.

But what does it mean for Theresa May?

Some had suggested that a majority for a customs union or similar might have been a useful tool for the prime minister to hold against her backbench MPs who have so far refused to vote for her deal.

They claim a so-called softer Brexit might have been enough to persuade MPs to support the deal because of a fear if they did not they may lose Brexit altogether.

Without that threat it becomes harder to see what leverage she can hold over MPs to encourage them to support her.

More than anything else these votes show clearly how divided political parties are and how split parliament is.

The question is, would a third go produce a different result or have MPs failed, as the prime minister has, to get a deal through the Commons and leave the European Union?

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