Boris Johnson will demand an election again and again, warns Sajid Javid

Chancellor Sajid Javid has said the Government will push "again and again" for a general election if the opposition denies Boris Johnson a pre-Christmas poll.

The Prime Minister said on Thursday he would give MPs more time to consider his Brexit deal if they agreed to an election on December 12.

But Labour – whose votes will be needed if he is to get the two-thirds majority in the Commons which he requires to go the country – has yet to say what it will do.

Jeremy Corbyn has said he wants to see the terms of any Brexit extension offered by the EU before deciding which way to vote on Monday.

However reports from Brussels suggest the remaining EU 27 – who had been expected to announce a delay to the end of January on Friday – will now defer a decision until they see the outcome of the Commons vote.

Mr Javid said the stalemate over Brexit had reduced Westminster to a "zombie parliament", and that it was now up to Labour to end the deadlock by agreeing to go back to the country.

With the Budget scheduled for November 6 having already been cancelled, the Chancellor suggested ministers would put other government business on hold until the issue was resolved.

"The Opposition have said, week after week, that if there is a delay of three months, which is what they requested through Parliament, then they will vote for a general election, so let's see if they keep their word," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"And if they don't then we will keep bringing back to Parliament a motion to have an election – and we will keep doing that again and again.

"As for other parliamentary business, we'll have to wait and see what that is, and we will react to it at that time."