THE Speaker of the House of Commons has launched an investigation into the alleged bullying of MPs during last night’s chaotic vote on fracking.

Opening proceedings today, Sir Lindsay Hoyle said he had asked officials to look into allegations of Tory MPs being “manhandled” into theGovernment voting lobby.

He reminded MPs that the Parliament’s code of behaviour, which says there is a “zero tolerance for abuse or harassment”, applied to them as well as others.

He said: “I wish to say something about the reports of behaviour in the division lobbies last night. I have asked the Serjeant at Arms and other senior officials to investigate the incident and report back to me. I will then update the House.

“I remind Members that the behaviour code applies to them as well as to other members of our parliamentary community, and this gives me another opportunity to talk about the kind of House I want to see and I believe that the vast majority of MPs also want to see.

“I want this to be a House in which we, while we might have very strong political disagreements, treat each other courteously and with respect, and we should show the same courtesy and respect to those who work with and for us.

“To that end I will be meeting with senior party representatives to seek an agreed position that behaviour like that described last night is not acceptable in all circumstances.”

It followed reports of extraordinarily shambolic scenes last night as the Government tried to win a vote on fracking triggered by the Labour party.

The motion would have paved the way for a ban on fracking in England, which had been a  2019 Tory manifesto pledge, but which Liz Truss now wants to reverse.

Tory whips initially told MPs it would be treated as a vote of confidence in the government, meaning that any rebels who voted with Labour would be out of the parliamentary party.

However minutes before the vote, the climate minister told the Commons from the despatch box that it was “obviously not a confidence vote”.

It led to confused and foul-tempered scenes in the voting lobbies, with opposition MPs reporting that Tory whips and ministers were screaming at and manhandling colleagues into voting for the Government, with some of the MPs in tears.

Former Labour minister Chris Bryant said some MPs were "physically manhandled into another lobby and being bullied."

READ MORE: Calls for 'bullying' probe as Commons vote ends in Tory chaos

Tory chief whip Wendy Morton and her deputy Craig Whittaker were reported to have resigned over the mess, but later returned to the government.

The confusion was seen as compounding the turmoil around the Prime Minister, who had earlier in the day lost her Home Secretary.

Suelle Braverman quit ostenisbly over a minor breach of the ministerial code and delivered a blistering critique of Ms Truss's record in her resignation letter.

Nicola Sturgeon described the fracking vote as “an utter shambles” and called for a general election.

At around 130am, Downing Street then U-turned on the despatch box statement and said it had been a vote of confidence after all, meaning dozens of Tory MPs who abstained despite a three-line whip ordering them to take part now face disciplinary action.

The statement said: “The whips will now be speaking to Conservative MPs who failed to support the Government.

"Those without a reasonable excuse for failing to vote with the Government can expect proportionate disciplinary action.”

Siobhan Baillie, the MP for Stroud, tweeted this morning that she didn;t know if she was still a Tory MP after abstaining on last night's vote.

She said: "Environmental issues are hugely important to my constituents.

"I abstained on the vote last night, knowing the potential consequences. For those asking whether I am still a Conservative MP - I don’t know but I hope so."

Shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said Labour would now use “every mechanism” at its disposal to topple the government.

The Edinburgh South MP told BBC Radio Scotland he had witnessed “absolute chaos”.

He said: “A lot of jostling, people shouting, swearing at each other. A real dreadful atmosphere in terms of the voting lobbies. It was really just unedifying scenes and something I’ve never seen before in my 12 years in Parliament.”

He said rumours of replacing the incumbent Prime Minister with a joint ticket of Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt would be unacceptable and said the fear of a general election was keeping Ms Truss in power.

“It’s clear that the model authority would be to go to the country if you replace the Prime Minister again and I think that’s what’s keeping Liz Truss in power at the moment,” he said.

“We’ll continue to use every single mechanism we can in Parliament to bring this government down and force a general election because the country can’t afford for this to continue.

“I think when people look at their mortgage renewals, they look at their energy bills, the cost of living, this government is certainly in office and not in power and definitely not in control.”