John McDonnell does not believes Labour will need help from the SNP after the next general election

John McDonnell has rejected doing a deal with Nicola Sturgeon that would deliver a new referendum on Scottish independence as the price of SNP support for a Labour government.

In an interview with The Times, the shadow chancellor said that there would be no horse-trading with the Nationalists to install Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister.

“No, not at all,” he said. “We wouldn’t have a deal with other political parties. We believe we will win the next election with a handsome majority. If things go wrong and we’re the largest party we’ll form a minority government. We will bring forward our transformative programme and if other parties support it that’s up to them.

“If they don’t we’ll go back to the people and explain