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A bid to pay interns the minimum wage has been blocked after two Tories droned on for more than an hour each.

The law ran out of time under obscure House of Commons rules that deny MPs a vote if a debate is still going at 2.30pm.

It's the latest in a long line of laws being "talked out" in Parliament, a process that has prompted fury and demands for reform.

There was anger two weeks ago when a law to pardon 50,000 gay men was shelved under the same system.

Today it was Business Minister Margot James who was speaking when a bell closed the four-and-a-half-hour debate.

But the longest speeches came from Tory MPs David Nuttall and Philip Davies, who each spoke for more than an hour.

Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke said his National Minimum Wage (Workplace Internships) Bill - backed by Labour - would end the "scandal" of unpaid work as he blasted the "hypocrisy" of Vivienne Westwood.

Scroll down to see how the system works

But in a 66-minute speech Philip Davies claimed it would be too restrictive.

He added: "It'd be wrong to say people coming in are a source of slave labour or anything like that - it's usually the other way around.

"It's usually the employer who is making the sacrifice to give people that opportunity, rather than the other way around and I fear the Bill doesn't actually accurately reflect the nature of that relationship."

Mr Shelbrooke told the Mirror he "always expected it to be talked out" but he had hoped the law could be improved by getting to the next stage - a committee of MPs.

He added: "I think it's a real disappointment that we don't do that on these debates - instead we play games and filibuster."

Asked if Mr Nuttall, Mr Davies or the minister were filibustering, he replied: "I think it's fairly obvious isn't it."

He now hopes some of his plans can get through as part of a separate review.

(Image: PA)

Philip Davies was previously branded an "arsehole" and a "w****r" by TV comic Russell Howard for speaking for 93 minutes against a law to give carers free hospital parking. He said the law was flawed.

Despite filing a complaint against the BBC he has boasted: "I stop a bad Bill from going forward by running out of time.

"I will use whatever procedures are in place to try and bring about the outcome that I think is best for the country and for my constituents.

"I certainly do not make any apology."

Mr Nuttall spoke for an hour and seven minutes today with several asides including musing on the word "internship".

"I don’t like the word internship. I rather think it’s an American import," he told MPs in the mostly empty House of Commons chamber.

He claimed the law wouldn't achieve what it claimed to, adding: "If someone wants to do a few weeks’ work experience… without being paid, the law should not stop it."

Mr Shelbrooke said his Bill - which would have paid interns the minimum wage not the 'national living wage', and had exceptions for school work experience - would end the "scandal" of unpaid work.

"It's a scandal, it's a disgrace, it's a flashback to Victorian Britain which most in this Chamber would not have thought believable," he said.

"The more you investigate shoddy workplace practices, the more it feels like the opening of Pandora's box. And the worst culprits seem to be the high end business, fashion or entertainment industries."

Mr Shelbrooke also slammed the "sheer hypocrisy" of employers like Vivienne Westwood in his own 46-minute speech.

(Image: Getty)

He attacked the fashion designer for protesting against austerity while her firm advertises unpaid internships.

"These adverts for unpaid staff are from the very same multi-millionaire fashionista who we've recently seen cosying up with the leader of the opposition, travelling around the streets of north London protesting against inequality," he stormed.

"Ms Westwood also gave a keynote speech to the junior doctors' strike, which makes me wonder what planet somebody is on when they protest that a 13.5% pay rise for junior doctors is not good enough while blatantly refusing to pay her staff a wage."

And Labour's shadow business minister Gill Furniss praised Mr Shelbrooke for bringing forward the Bill.

She said: "This is a system rigged in favour of those who can afford it - or perhaps better said, whose parents can afford it.

"Careers in law, medicine, the media, fashion, finance and the arts are all beyond the reach by some of our brightest and our best. They are monopolised by the children of the wealthy.

"Someone doing a fair day’s work should receive a fair day’s wage."

But Tory Peter Heaton-Jones, who spoke for 23 minutes, warned fewer internships would be available as an “unintended consequence” of the “noble” Bill.

Business Minister Ms James announced she would add internships to a government review of working practices by RSA chief executive Matthew Taylor.

But warned the Bill put forward by Mr Shelbrooke could "create unnecessary obstacles to fulfilment".

She added: "While extremely well-intentioned I do have concerns it will have unintended consequences."

All today's speeches were broken up by "interventions" from other MPs.

Taking to the floor at 2.04pm, Ms James lamented that another Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg hadn’t given the “full panoply” of his views too.

(Image: PA)

How the system works and why it's controversial

Today's law was a Private Member's Bill. These are laws put forward by backbench MPs which are not supported by the government.

They get their 'second reading' - the first major stage - on Fridays, when many MPs are hundreds of miles away doing constituency work.

That means that for critics, often the only way to stop them being voted through is to deny MPs a vote altogether.

The House of Commons Procedures Committee first condemned the system for Private Members' Bills in April after several were pushed out of time.

Yet the committee's most radical reforms, including speech time limits to stop laws being "talked out", were rejected by the government under David Cameron - which claimed the current process serves an "important function".

The committee has accused the government under Mr Cameron of failing to act on fears about the “broken and discredited” system.