Jeremy Corbyn has lost a motion of no confidence in his leadership by a margin of 172 to 40.

The beleaguered Labour Party leader faced a series of resignations from his Shadow Cabinet, with more than 50 MPs quitting their posts in the last three days, following the Leave vote in last week’s EU Referendum.

However, despite the overwhelming vote against him, Mr Corbyn is expected to stay on as party leader, insisting that a mandate from the party membership is more important than the support of MPs.

He was elected to the leadership last September with nearly 60 per cent of the vote and is still believed to enjoy the support of the majority of party members.

If he now calls a leadership election and stands as a candidate he can be assured of re-election, thus possibly precipitating a split in the Labour Party.