Opposition leaders meet to decide whether to call no confidence vote SNP urges Labour and Lib Dems to compromise over the best way to oust Boris Johnson

Opposition leaders will attempt to reach agreement on Monday over whether to table a vote of no confidence in the government in an attempt to oust Boris Johnson from Downing Street within days.

The parties are deadlocked over who should lead a temporary administration if Mr Johnson is forced from office.

Labour insists that Jeremy Corbyn should be the first choice, while the Liberal Democrats argue that the post should be filled by a less divisive figure.

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The Conservatives, meeting in Manchester, are on standby for a parliamentary ambush, and plans have been drawn up to ferry ministers and MPs to Westminster at short notice.

The prospect of a confidence vote increased after Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, indicated that she would be willing to install Mr Corbyn briefly in office in order to avert a no-deal Brexit by asking Brussels for a delay to Britain’s scheduled departure on 31 October.

The caretaker Prime Minister would then trigger an immediate general election.

Common ground

Amid divisions among the opposition parties, the SNP is urging both Labour and the Liberal Democrats to compromise to establish common ground.

The party believes that Mr Corbyn should remain open to another figure heading the short-lived government of national unity.

A senior SNP source said the meeting would include identifying a “neutral, “non-threatening” person who could appeal to all opposition parties as well as the 21 Tory rebels who lost the party whip this month.

Legacy figures

It is understood that attention is focusing on the former Tory Chancellor Kenneth Clarke and the former Labour minister Dame Margaret Beckett, because they will both step down at the general election expected within months.

Read more: EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier warns Boris Johnson has limited chances of a Brexit deal

However, the shadow education secretary Angela Rayner played down suggestions that a no-confidence vote was imminent.

She told the BBC: “We want to make sure that we get no-deal off the table before we do anything else. That is the difficulty we face currently.

“We want to make sure that we have an orderly exit from Europe. That is why we have put systems in place through the Benn Act to make sure we don’t end up crashing out.”