LONDON – British lawmakers rejected an attempt Monday by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to call an early election as the European Union also granted a new Brexit delay to Jan. 31 next year, a move that temporarily staves off a chaotic U.K. departure from the bloc.

The development comes just three days before Britain was due to become the first country ever to leave the 28-nation bloc on Oct 31.

Johnson wanted to hold an election before Christmas to break an impasse in Parliament over Brexit. After losing the vote, he said he would try again with a new bill.

"This House can no longer keep this country hostage," Johnson told lawmakers after losing Monday's vote. He said Parliament had become "dysfunctional" over Brexit.

The House of Commons voted 299-70 to hold an early election, but that fell well short of the two-thirds majority of all 650 lawmakers that Johnson needed.

The main opposition Labour Party abstained from the vote.

A new attempt to call an election could come as early as Tuesday and may offer a short-cut to success for Johnson, because unlike Monday’s motion, the bill only needs a simple majority to pass and some opposition parties have indicated they may support it.

The EU divorce delay was announced earlier Monday on Twitter by European Council President Donald Tusk. He said that the EU approved a Brexit "flextension," meaning that if Britain's Parliament is able to ratify an EU exit deal negotiated by Johnson ahead of Jan. 31 then Britain can withdraw from the bloc prior to that date.

It's the second time the Brexit deadline has been changed since the 2016 referendum on Britain's departure from the EU.

Johnson's defeat over his call for a new election was his third in Parliament on the same issue, which is seen as a proxy vote on Britain's ties with the EU.

Johnson accepted the EU's three-month Brexit extension.

But he said he was doing so against his will.

"The only way to get Brexit done is to go to the people of this country," Johnson told legislators Monday during debate in the House of Commons.

He accused his opponents of betraying voters' decision to leave the EU.

He said that unless there was an election, the government would be "like Charlie Brown, endlessly running up to kick the ball only to have Parliament whisk it away."

“We cannot continue with this endless delay,” he added.

Guy Verhofstadt, head of the European Parliament’s Brexit group, wrote on Twitter that "whether the UK’s democratic choice is revoke or an orderly withdraw, confirmed or not in a second referendum, the uncertainty of Brexit has gone on for far too long. This extra time must deliver a way forward."

More:Boris Johnson's Brexit-deal timetable rejected by Parliament

Johnson's third attempt to call an election follows lawmakers' rejection of his plan to rush through an EU exit bill that runs to hundreds of pages in just three days. They want more time to scrutinize the legislation and to make sure it does not leave the door open to a possible "no-deal" Brexit during future exit negotiations with the EU that will run through next year. A "no-deal" Brexit could dramatically harm Britain's economy.

The prime minister was forced to ask for an extension to Britain's EU departure date after Britain's Parliament passed a law to ward off the threat of a "no-deal" Brexit.

He had repeatedly pledged to finalize the first stage, a transition deal, of Britain's EU divorce battle by Oct. 31, even saying he'd rather be "dead in a ditch" than not abide by that time frame. A second stage of Brexit negotiations will involve brokering its future relationship with the EU on trade, security and other salient issues.

Most polls show that Johnson would likely win any new national vote comfortably.

Because he currently does not have a majority in Parliament this would give him more leeway to pursue his Brexit agenda and other pro-business, Conservative priorities.