The SNP is in private talks to identify a Labour alternative to Jeremy Corbyn to lead a temporary government to thwart a no-deal Brexit, The Sunday Times has learnt.

Party leader Nicola Sturgeon and leader in Westminster Ian Blackford indicated last week that the nationalists could support a time-limited administration led by Corbyn to prevent Britain crashing out of the EU.

They indicated that, as the leader of the second largest party Westminster, he should have the first chance of forming an administration purely to obtain a further Brexit extension and then hold a general election.

Privately, however, senior SNP figures accept that the Lib Dems, and many of the Tory rebels who had the whip withdrawn, will not countenance putting the Labour leader in