TORY leaders skulked away from Parliament yesterday after their attempted coup against Speaker John Bercow was scuppered.

Commons Leader William Hague and government chief whip Michael Gove were left humiliated by their failed bid to depose Mr Bercow.

They tried to effectively unseat him by sneaking through rule changes on the election of the speaker on the last day of Parliament.

It fell to former miner and Labour whip David Hamilton, in his final act before retiring from Parliament, to inform the Tories of their crushing 202 to 228 defeat.

The Speaker held back tears as he hailed “the Nos have, the Nos have” to a chorus of claps and cheers from the Labour benches.

Labour’s shadow Commons leader Angela Eagle described it as a “humiliating defeat” for David Cameron on the eve of the general election.

She said: “Instead of talking about ways to improve the lives of working people, in the last week all the Prime Minister has done is play petty partisan games and arrogantly talk about his retirement plans.

“In today’s vote decency and democracy prevailed.”

With many MPs already back in their constituencies, top Tories wanted to seize the opportunity to settle old scores with the Speaker — himself a Tory MP.

Mr Hague, who is also retiring, had only sprung the request for a debate on the Speaker at 5.30pm on Wednesday.

And Mr Gove called a meeting of Tory MPs on the same night to ensure that they were in Parliament yesterday.

But a rebellion by 23 Tories and 10 Lib Dems, who joined outraged Labour MPs who had rushed back to Parliament, secured a margin of 26 against the motion.

Tory backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg described his “deep sadness” that Mr Hague had chosen to end his career in that way.

Mr Hague had argued that the change, which would see the speaker elected in a secret ballot in the next Parliament, would be more democratic.

But veteran Labour MP Gerald Kaufman said it was a “grubby, squalid, nauseous” plot rather than attempted reform.

And Newport West MP Paul Flynn described it as a “mean, spiteful kick at the best reforming Speaker we have had for 30 years.”