THE SNP has failed in its bid to replace Labour as Her Majesty’s official opposition at Westminster.

The Nationalists have claimed Jeremy Corbyn’s party has descended into a "crisis-ridden shambles" and can no longer provide a credible opposition in comparison to the SNP, which is “organised and disciplined”.

On Tuesday, Mr Corbyn lost a vote of no confidence by 172 to 40 MPs. But the Labour leader is intent on staying put.

He has seen more than 50 of his MPs resign from shadow positions. After days of trying to fill the holes, the opposition’s frontline team is still missing many shadow ministers, including the entire Scottish team.

On a point of order in the Commons chamber, Pete Wishart, the SNP’s shadow Commons leader, sought to make political capital out of Labour’s troubles.

He referred to Erskine May, the parliamentary authority, which, he told MPs, explained that the official opposition was the largest minority party prepared, in the event of the resignation of the government, to assume power.

The Perth MP pointed out that the current official opposition had lost two-thirds of its shadow cabinet and its leader no longer commanded the support of the overwhelming majority of the party’s backbench.

“Labour can no longer provide shadows for large departments of state. It’s clearly in no shape to assume power and is unable to meet its key responsibilities and obligations as outlined in Erskine May,” declared Mr Wishart.

He asked John Bercow, the Commons Speaker: “Given these quite obvious failings, what steps would need to be taken to have this official opposition replaced with one that can meet the responsibilities set out very clearly in Erskine May?” In other words, the SNP.

Mr Bercow made clear he was familiar with Erskine May on the matter.

To laughter, he told MPs: “I can confirm that the Labour Party currently constitutes the official opposition and that its leader is recognised by me, for statutory and parliamentary purposes, as the leader of the Opposition.”

The Speaker told Mr Wishart that he would have noticed that he had called Mr Corbyn as the leader of the Opposition earlier to ask a series of questions to the Prime Minister and that he would be aware that there was opposition business, a debate on the economy, which had been chosen by the leader of the Opposition.

Mr Bercow said that, in considering the matter, he had benefited from expert advice and told Mr Wishart that he understood the “vantage point” from which he spoke.