Without a majority and facing a rebellion from their own MPs, Tory whips thought they had a cunning plan to avoid an embarrassing defeat over the Government’s flagship welfare policy.

They tried to stop a vote on Labour’s motion to pause the roll out of Universal Credit on a technicality by ordering all Tory MPs to abstain.

They even allowed Moray MP Douglas Ross to go and officiate a Champions League football match in Barcelona.

But their plan badly backfired.

Not only did they lose the vote – by 299 votes to 0 – but they were given what was possibility the biggest bollocking ever dished out by John Bercow.

Watch the best bits from Bercow’s lecture to the Government on democracy below:

The Government are a good metaphor for Universal Credit – an absolute shambles!