NICOLA Sturgeon has said she is prepared to install Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street to avoid the “catastrophe” of a no-deal Brexit.
The First Minister responded positively to the Labour leader’s appeal to other parties to oust Boris Johnson and form a temporary caretaker government.
“We’ll work with anyone and we’ll explore any option to stop Brexit,” she said.
READ MORE: Jeremy Corbyn in bid to end Boris Johnson government in September
Under Mr Corbyn’s plan, he would table a no-confidence motion in the current government as soon as the numbers were there to pass it.
He would then lead a “strictly time-limited” administration to extend the deadline for Brexit and call a general election.
The plan has been dismissed by LibDem leader Jo Swinson because of Mr Corbyn being PM, something she said would stop Tory rebels and many Labour MPs from backing it.
However the SNP and Plaid Cymru have said they will consider it.
Unionists have linked the SNP’s receptiveness to Mr Corbyn also saying a future Labour government would not block a second independence referendum.
READ MORE: Jeremy Corbyn: UK parliament should not block second Scottish independence referendum
Speaking to the BBC, Ms Sturgeon said: “The SNP has made clear all along that we’ll work with anybody at Westminster to try to stop Brexit, and avert the catastrophe of a no-deal Brexit.
“I think the best thing in a Westminster context would be for there to be a general election or a second EU referendum to give people the opportunity to change tack.
“But we’ll work with anybody.
"I think the thing for Jeremy Corbyn, though, is he has to finally and firmly come off the fence on Brexit, and stop trying to equivocate and prevaricate.”
Nicola Sturgeon says the SNP will "work with anyone and we'll explore any option to stop Brexit", as Jeremy Corbyn asks opposition leaders to back his plan to stop no dealhttps://t.co/mTYGa5QLsl pic.twitter.com/lINPQKyNcy
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) August 15, 2019
Asked whether she would help install Mr Corbyn as a temporary Prime Minister, she said: “We’ll work with anyone and we’ll explore any option to stop Brexit.
“It’s no secret I’m not a great fan of Jeremy Corbyn, but we won’t rule out any option if it helps to avert what is a looming catastrophe of a no-deal Brexit.
“Now [SNP Westminster leader] Ian Blackford, as he has been trying to do for some time now, will seek to talk to Labour and to other parties at Westminster, to other individual MPs if that’s possible, to try to see if we can bring together a majority behind a plan, whatever that plan may be that stops Brexit.
“The SNP, I think maybe alone among the main parties at Westminster, has been consistent in our determination to do that.”
READ MORE: Sturgeon links uphill Shetland byelection to independence
Scottish Tory deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said Mr Corbyn had Mr Corbyn had "surrendered on a second independence referendum".
He said: "Both he and [shadow chancellor] John McDonnell are preparing to hand Nicola Sturgeon the referendum she wants in exchange for SNP support for a Labour government.
"Scottish Labour has been left dangling in the breeze – they are utterly irrelevant even to their own party.
"It’s clear who’s in charge of Scottish Labour and it’s not Richard Leonard.
"It’s a complete betrayal of thousands of Labour voters in Scotland who support the Union.
"It shows once and for all that Corbyn cannot be trusted to defend Scotland’s decision to remain in the UK."
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