Business Secretary Sajid Javid was branded "discourteous and incompetent" by Commons Speaker John Bercow for taking too long to reply to an urgent question. Mr Bercow said the cabinet minister should have offered to make a government statement instead.

The unusually outspoken criticism from the Speaker came after Mr Javid finished responding to an urgent question from Labour on the steel industry, following the announcement by Tata Steel of nearly 1,200 job losses at its plants in Scunthorpe and Lanarkshire.

"It must not happen again," Mr Bercow told the cabinet minister.