Police have arrested 12 people on suspicion of outraging public decency after climate change activists stripped off to stage a protest in the House of Commons while MPs debated Brexit.

A group of largely-naked Extinction Rebellion protesters with messages painted on their bodies stood up in the public gallery overlooking the debate on Monday night.

Some were pressed against the glass which separates the gallery from the chamber, with police who were sent to the scene to negotiate saying one had "super-glued" themselves to the window.

MPs were seen taking a glance up at the protest and Speaker John Bercow maintained that the debate on the second stage of the Brexit alternatives would proceed despite the protest.

Scotland Yard said: "12 arrests have been made for outraging public decency."

An earlier statement from the force had said: "The protesters are naked and one of them has super-glued themselves to a window.

"Officers are on scene and attempting to negotiate with them."

Extinction Rebellion, which describes itself as a non-violent direct action and civil disobedience group, said the protest was an attempt to draw politicians' attentions to the "climate and ecological crisis".

Protester Savannah, an English literature student from Ladbroke Grove, told the Press Association: "Everyone stripped and two people were elephants and had climate crisis written on them.