Brazil’s vice-president Michel Temer has rejected allegations from President Dilma Rousseff that he is conspiring to launch a parliamentary coup against her.

After a vote by the house of congress on Sunday in favour of her impeachment, Ms Rousseff was to fly to New York last night for a UN meeting today where she is also expected to give media interviews portraying the impeachment process as unconstitutional and a coup.

“There is no coup whatsoever happening here in Brazil,” Mr Temer, who has otherwise largely stayed out of the front lines of the impeachment battle, told the Financial Times in a rare interview. “Various ministers of the Supreme Court have said the possible impeachment of the president of the republic would not represent a coup. It is a constitutional process.”