A defiant John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, has clashed once again with a Cabinet minister over parliamentary procedure on Brexit as MPs were told that in a battle between Parliament and Government, Parliament would win.

With Westminster still experiencing the aftershock of Wednesday’s power struggle, Mr Bercow was openly attacked by Andrea Leadsom, the Commons Leader, for making an “arbitrary” decision on process.

To the rage of UK ministers and loyal Conservatives, the Speaker’s decision meant a Government business motion was successfully changed, resulting in Theresa May being forced to bring back a Plan B within three working days, should her Brexit Plan be defeated, as expected, next Tuesday.

But Mr Bercow told Ms Leadsom that he required “no lessons or lectures from others” about how to discharge his obligations to Parliament and to support of the rights of backbench MPs.

He said that abuse from whatever quarter was “water off a duck’s back”.

During Business Questions, the SNP’s Pete Wishart derided what he termed “truly appalling and embarrassing” scenes at Westminster.

Noting how Ms Leadsom had been the principal cheerleader in egging on a Conservative “braying mob” against the Speaker, the Perth MP declared: “This has to stop.”

He told Mr Bercow: “The Conservatives must start to respect the authority of the House and your office because this is utter appalling hypocrisy. This is a government that has done its level best to curtail debate, to withhold information from this House and even had the courts compel them to allow us to have a vote on leaving the EU.

“It was only successive votes of this House that got them to reveal vital information about their Brexit deal. It’s a government that has been found in contempt of Parliament. It’s absolutely right they are stopped.”

Mr Wishart commended the Speaker for putting the rights of MPs first and warned ministers: “If this Government wants Government versus Parliament, it will be on the losing side because we are now in the majority.”

In response, Ms Leadsom stressed how it was the Speaker's role to "uphold the rules that Parliament has made for itself, not to arbitrarily change those rules".

She explained that yesterday was not about Parliament taking back control but, rather, about a number of MPs, who had tried to put amendments to the business motion and were told it was unamendable and undebatable.

“The role of the chair is to uphold the rules that Parliament has made for itself not to arbitrarily change those rules. So, yesterday was not an example of Parliament taking back control, it was an example of a differentiation between those members who were told that it was unamendable and undebatable, and those who were told differently."

Mr Bercow then intervened to declare: "There was nothing arbitrary about the conduct of the chair yesterday.

"This Speaker is well aware of how to go about the business of chairing the proceedings of the House because he's been doing so for nine and a half years.

"I hope colleagues will understand when I say that I require no lessons or lectures from others about how to discharge my obligations to Parliament and in support of the rights of backbench parliamentarians."

The Speaker added: "I have been doing it, I'm continuing to do it and I will go on doing it, no matter how much abuse I get from whatever quarter; it's water off a duck's back as far as I am concerned."

He piped up again after Mrs Leadsom reiterated that she was advised that the controversial amendment by her Conservative colleague Dominic Grieve "would not be selectable".

The Speaker intervened a second time to stress that it was his responsibility as chair to select amendments.

"It is a matter for the representative and champion of Parliament, it is not a matter for a representative of the executive branch, who is the executive's representative in the chamber of the House of Commons. I'll do my job and other people can seek to do theirs," he insisted.

Earlier, Ms Leadsom confirmed the Government would abide by Mr Grieve's amendment, which asks it to outline a revised Brexit plan within three sitting days if the PM's deal were defeated. The normal process, as outlined in law, requires a statement within 21 days of the deal being rejected and a motion being tabled within seven days thereafter.

"Of course the Government will do so, the Prime Minister has shown her willingness to always return to this House, at the first possible opportunity, if there is anything to report in terms of our deal and we will continue to do so," added the Commons Leader.

Because the House is not sitting next Friday, then the deadline for Mrs May to make a statement on a Plan B would be Monday January 21. Her statement is likely to be made on this day with a debate and vote following in that week.

The Government’s understanding of the Grieve amendment is that this debate would last only 90 minutes and only one amendment could be submitted. However, given the strength of feeling on the Brexit issue, MPs are likely to object to a debate lasting only 90 minutes. As has been seen this week, the Speaker could determine to interpret matters in a different way and allow MPs a much longer debate.