There could be a vote of no confidence in the government next week in order to remove Boris Johnson as prime minister and secure a Brexit date extension, a senior Scottish National party MP has said.

Following talks between opposition party leaders at Westminster, Stewart Hosie said the move appeared to be the only way of ensuring Johnson did not push through a no-deal Brexit on 31 October.

“We have to do that because there is now no confidence that the prime minister will obey the law and seek the extension that parliament voted for only a few weeks ago,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“If we are serious about the extension, that is the only game in town.”

Hosie, a former SNP deputy leader, said the aim was to stop a no-deal Brexit, and that all opposition parties and Tory rebels needed to be united.

The SNP MP urged the Liberal Democrat leader, Jo Swinson, to get behind the move, which could lead to Jeremy Corbyn being installed in No 10. Swinson has previously said she would not put Corbyn in Downing Street, even for a short period.

Stewart Hosie said Labour, as the second-largest party in the Commons, should have the first chance to form a government after a successful no-confidence vote. Photograph: Mark Runnacles/Getty Images

“If another name came forward that was acceptable to everybody – a Ken Clarke or Dominic Grieve-type figure – then self-evidently that would be a good thing to do,” Hosie said. “But it is also self-evidently the case that the second-largest party [Labour] should have the first chance to form that administration.



“If Jo Swinson and the Lib Dems are actually serious about stopping Brexit then they need to stop playing political games [and] get on board with everybody else.”

Hosie said it was a short-term procedure to get an extension to article 50 and then have a general election.

Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has said she is open-minded about Corbyn becoming an interim prime minister, in order to secure an extension to Brexit and call a general election.

She told BBC Scotland: “We are all going to have to compromise, we are all going to have to swallow our pride and put up with something for a matter of days to allow that to happen, and get on with it.”

Her representative in Westminster, Ian Blackford, said the SNP was “desperate” for an election.