THE SNP is poised with other opposition parties at Westminster to launch a parliamentary attempt to topple Theresa May after Labour rejected demands to do so right away.
Ian Blackford gave Jeremy Corbyn until the end of yesterday to bring a motion of no confidence in the Government or face being outflanked by a joint bid by his party, the LibDems, the Greens and Plaid Cymru.
He threw down his challenge to Labour at a press conference yesterday, saying: “if Jeremy can’t … then we as the leaders of the other opposition parties must rise to that challenge”.
The smaller opposition parties believe a vote of no confidence would pave the way to a second EU referendum, but Labour want to set down a motion to oust May when her Brexit deal returns to the Commons for a meaningful vote.
Blackford and Corbyn were due to meet yesterday to discuss a strategy for the way ahead but the Labour leader pulled out of the meeting amid the disagreement.
READ MORE: Theresa May facing Tory leadership fight as rebels make move
Earlier, Nicola Sturgeon called on Corbyn to stop “posturing” and take action to bring down the Conservative government.
The First Minister said May was being allowed to “run down the clock” on Brexit and said action had to be taken now if a “different path” was to be found before Brexit day on 29 March.
May dashed off to the continent yesterday to hold talks with European leaders in a bid to rescue her deal by securing “reassurances” on the Northern Ireland backstop.
On Monday, the Prime Minister was forced to abandon the crucial meaningful vote on the deal, due to take place in the Commons last night, after admitting it would have been lost by a “significant margin”.
The Labour leader had hoped to force a General Election if May lost the vote, but his party now argues that a no-confidence motion has more chance of success when the vote is eventually held. No date has yet been announced but the Government has said it will be before January 21.
Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, the First Minister asked: “If the time is not right now, when will it be right?”
She also claimed that the Tory leader was “trying to run down the clock, hoping to get to a point where people have to back her because there’s no alternative”.
The First Minister added: “It’s a government that has ceased to govern – it’s not functioning any longer so it can’t go on and I think it is incumbent now on the official opposition to lodge a motion of no confidence. I signalled yesterday that the SNP would support that.”
Corbyn later insisted he will wait until the “appropriate time” to table a motion of no confidence in May’s government.
He told MPs the Prime Minister must admit her Brexit deal is “dead” and criticised her “shambolic” Brexit negotiations, before adding: “She no longer has the authority to negotiate for this country when she doesn’t even have the authority of her own party.”
He also accused May of having “wasted” almost £100,000 of taxpayers’ cash in a week by trying to promote her “dog’s dinner of a Brexit deal” via Facebook advertisements.
The SNP’s shadow Commons leader Pete Wishart intervened to challenge Corbyn over his plans to try to remove May from power.
He said: “This Government is an absolute shambles, they have failed the country, they are in contempt of Parliament – will he not do the right thing now and table a motion of no confidence in this government so we can be shot of them?”
Corbyn said he had tabled the emergency debate motion on the Brexit vote process yesterday, adding: “We have no confidence in this Government. We need to do the appropriate thing at the appropriate time to have a motion of no confidence in order to get rid of this government.”
The exchanges came at the beginning of an emergency debate on the Prime Minister’s decision to avoid defeat in the Commons by delaying the Brexit deal vote.
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