Jeremy Hunt and other Conservative front benchers have been scolded by the Speaker of the House of Commons for "fiddling" with their mobile phones during a debate in Parliament.

John Bercow said the behaviour was "rank discourteous" when he caught the Health Secretary and his colleagues looking at their gadgets at the beginning of a discussion over NHS bursaries.

Mr Bercow said: "I do very gently say that to sit on the bench... fiddling ostentatiously with an electronic device defies the established convention of the house that such devices should be used without impairing parliamentary decorum. They are impairing parliamentary decorum.

"It's a point so blindingly obvious that only an extraordinarily clever and sophisticated person could fail to grasp it.

When the Deputy Leader of the House Therese Coffey appeared to continue pressing buttons on her phone, Mr Bercow shouted: "Put the device away, and if you don't want to put it away, get out of the house. I'm telling her its discourteous to continue, a point most people would understand."

How the Coalition carved up the NHS Show all 2 1 /2 How the Coalition carved up the NHS How the Coalition carved up the NHS Pg-22-nhs1-pa.jpg Left out in the cold: Andrew Lansley (left) and his junior minister Paul Burstow were landed with a radical approach that Lansley quickly told officials was ‘unworkable’ PA How the Coalition carved up the NHS Pg-22-nhs2-getty.jpg The decision makers: Oliver Letwin (right) and Danny Alexander negotiated the coalition’s ‘half-horse/half-donkey’ policy on the NHS in short order - with no reference to the Health Department and Andrew Lansley Getty Images