THE leader of the House of Commons is “very sympathetic” to the SNP being given a second chance to table their motion on a Gaza ceasefire – and that could come at the expense of Labour’s opposition time at Westminster.

Penny Mordaunt told MPs that she would be in discussions with officials and the Speaker’s office to consider the “serious consequences” of a decision from Lindsay Hoyle which plunged Westminster into chaos on Wednesday.

Hoyle went against official advice and broke with long-standing convention to allow a Labour amendment on an SNP opposition-day motion. Keir Starmer’s party avoided a significant rebellion of up to 100 MPs as a direct result.

READ MORE: Inside a chaotic Westminster as the SNP's ceasefire motion was torn apart

Opposition parties have pointed to reports that Starmer pressured Hoyle before the controversial move, reports which Labour have strongly denied. However, they did not deny that Starmer met with Hoyle before the decision was announced.

SNP chief whip Owen Thompson raised the chaos at Westminster with Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons, during Business Questions on Thursday.

Noting that the SNP are only given three opposition days in a calendar year, Thompson said that they had been forced into silence on Wednesday “and that is incredibly disappointing for me and incredibly disappointing for significant numbers of my constituents”.

He went on: “Can I ask the leader of the House – given that effectively we did not get an opposition day yesterday – can we have an allocation of an alternative date for our opposition day given that didn't happen?

“We lost, as others have said, a significant amount of time at the start of the debate and because of the decision of the speaker, unfortunately, we lost 40 minutes at the end of that debate. I'm sorry, but that meant that colleagues were cut short and some withdrew.”

He added: “And beyond that, what consideration can be given to the protection for the smaller parties not simply being railroaded for political purposes of one of either of the bigger parties?”

Responding, Mordaunt said she was “very sympathetic” to the SNP’s arguments, which she noted was an unusual position for her to take.

The Tory minister said: “It is no secret to anyone that … I frequently disagree with the Scottish National Party on everything that they raise in this chamber. But they have a right to say these things on the floor, the House, and debate their issues.”

READ MORE: 'Shameful': Anas Sarwar panned for blaming Westminster chaos on SNP

She went on: “Our standing orders protect the ability, in particular of minority parties, to be able to have those debates. There are serious consequences to the decision that was taken yesterday for minority parties and also for the government …

“So this is very important, and we need to make sure that those rights of minority parties are protected going forward.

“I am very sympathetic to the SNP being given more time. I also have to say I'm sympathetic about it being knocked off the Labour Party's element.”

Mordaunt added that the Speaker had eventually returned to the House of Commons late on Wednesday to apologise for his actions and their consequences.

She said that he would be meeting with representatives from government and all opposition parties later on Thursday.