Alberto Núñez Feijóo fails to win Spanish MPs’ backing to become PM

Feijoo's defeat had been expected and gives acting PM Pedro Sanchez chance to try to form government

Spain's acting prime minister, the socialist leader Pedro Sanchez, has a fresh, if fraught, shot at returning to power after his conservative rival Alberto Nunez Feijoo failed in his attempt to take office in an ill-tempered investiture debate that followed July's inconclusive general election.

Although Feijoo's People's party (PP) finished first in the snap general election, it failed to win enough votes to form a government, taking 137 seats in Spain's 350-seat congress and scoring a far less emphatic win over the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' party (PSOE) than had been expected.