Nicola Sturgeon has branded Boris Johnson a "lame duck PM" after he narrowly won a vote of confidence in his leadership.
The First Minister took to social media after the Prime Minister saw 211 of his colleagues vote in favour of him while 148 voted against in the secret ballot in Westminster.
While Conservative Party rules mean he is safe from a confidence vote for another year, Johnson still faces a daunting list of challenges demanding his attention.
First on the list will be mending his own divided party.
A confidence vote is never a good thing for a leader and the 148 votes against him means he now faces an internal opposition that is difficult to ignore.
Following the result, Sturgeon tweeted: "That result is surely the worst of all worlds for the Tories. But much more importantly: at a time of huge challenge, it saddles the UK with an utterly lame duck PM.
"And for Scotland, it just underlines the democratic deficit - only 2 of 59 MPs have confidence in the PM."
The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford also hit out at the PM.
He said: " Tory MPs should have drawn a line under Boris Johnson's disastrous time as Prime Minister but instead they've bottled it - allowing this damaging circus to continue and leaving the Westminster government in crisis.
"The UK is now stuck in limbo with a lame duck Prime Minister who has lost the confidence of the public - and more than forty per cent of his own MPs - and is left limping around on borrowed time while the Tory party descends into bitter division.
"As for Douglas Ross, his position is completely untenable. If he had any principles or dignity he should quit as Scottish Tory leader. He has made himself look utterly ridiculous by flip-flopping over Boris Johnson's future and will have no authority or credibility if he tries to cling on."
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