17:16

Speaking in Dunfermline, at the start of a three-day tour of Scotland, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, insisted MPs could still have time to move legislation to prevent a no-deal Brexit, but also had some cautionary words for Scottish nationalists.

While the SNP leader and first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, yesterday said that Boris Johnson’s conduct in shutting down parliament had made independence “almost inevitable” - and Ruth Davidson’s resignation has also prompted speculation about the future of the union - today Corbyn warned that a Labour government would not allow another Scottish independence vote to be held in its “formative years”.

Earlier this month, Corbyn’s shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, told an Edinburgh fringe event that a Labour government would not oppose a second independence referendum – directly contradicting Scottish Labour policy.

Today Corbyn said: “I want there to be a Labour government in this country and I want that Labour government to be able to deliver for the people of Scotland as for the rest of the UK.

“It’s not my priority that there should be an independence referendum in Scotland.”