The Government was grilled on its flagship welfare reform today after the Tories lost a vote on halting the rollout last week.

Work and Pensions Secretary David Gauke, who has ultimate responsibility for the bungled benefit shake-up, failed to appear at today's debate, sending deputy Damian Hinds in his place.

Debbie Abrahams who led the debate said: “I always welcome the minister to his place, but I would like to ask why the Secretary of State isn’t here to answer.

The shadow work and pensions secretary said: “Obviously I understand that emergencies do happen, but I haven’t had any satisfactory response from his office when I rang earlier, and apparently Downing Street are none the wiser either.”

Behind Ms Abrahams, a backbench MP was heard branding Gauke's no-show “outrageous.”

Universal Credit, which combines six working age benefits into a single payment, has proved controversial because one in five people are forced to wait more than six weeks for their first payment.

Even people paid “on time” have to wait up to six weeks.

The debate was granted by the Speaker, John Bercow after he criticised the government's response to the Opposition day debate last week which Labour won by 299 to 0 after Tories were ordered to abstain.

Since then even the architect of Universal Credit Iain Duncan Smith has said the waiting time is too long.

MPs from across the House spoke out during the three-hour debate with many Labour members telling heart-breaking stories about the effects of the policy on their constituents.

Labour former minister Angela Eagle said a pause in UC was "urgent".

She added: "In Wallasey the roll-out will begin halfway through November, six weeks later it's Christmas.

You can look back on how the debate unfolded below.