A partial government shutdown caused by an impasse over Donald Trump’s proposed wall on the Mexican border will continue into 2019 after both chambers of Congress adjourned on Thursday without acting to end the closure.

There had been a narrow chance that the House would convene on Thursday afternoon and vote on a deal to end the shutdown. But no headway was made, and Trump remained insistent that the shutdown would continue until Congress supplies billions for the border wall, which he says will help tackle illegal immigration.

The president accused the Democrats on Thursday morning of “obstruction” for failing to go along with his wall idea and asserted that Democrats “know it [the wall] is really needed”. Democrats say a border wall would be an expensive and ineffective solution to a problem that Trump exaggerates.

The shutdown went into effect at midnight on 21 December. The Republican majority in the Senate was unable to rally support for Trump’s wall, after House Republicans passed an 11th-hour wall funding bill on 20 December.

Negotiations to reopen the government, such as there have been, will shift when Congress reconvenes on 3 January, when a new Democratic majority takes control of the House. Having failed to procure wall funding when his party controlled both houses of Congress, it was unclear how Trump intended to carry the day with Democrats partially in charge.

Representative Nancy Pelosi, who will assume the role of speaker on 3 January, said in a statement: “We will vote swiftly to reopen government and show that Democrats will govern responsibly in stark contrast to this chaotic White House.”