NICOLA Sturgeon has reacted to the the SNP's walk-out of the House of Commons.

The third largest party at Westminster left the main chamber after the decision made by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle to accept a Labour amendment to the Gaza ceasefire debate, with Westminster descending into chaos.

SNP MPs and some Conservatives walked out of the chamber in protest at Hoyle’s handling of procedure which has left several MPs calling his position "untenable".

READ MORE: Anger as Lindsay Hoyle changes Commons rules on Gaza ceasefire vote

The former first minister posted on social media: "The House of Commons reduces itself to farce because even on an issue as serious as the situation in Gaza, the Westminster establishment can’t bring itself to rise above hostility to the SNP.

"Proud of my @theSNP colleagues but deeply depressed by the state of UK ‘democracy’."

She concluded with "#CeasefireNOW".

Lindsay apologised to the Commons, telling MPs amid shouts of “resign”: “I thought I was doing the right thing and the best thing, and I regret it, and I apologise for how it’s ended up.”

SNP MPs were understood to have headed to the voting lobby after the walk-out from the chamber.

Labour’s amendment was approved without any division to be voted on.

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said he would take significant convincing that the Speaker’s position was “not now intolerable” and claimed his party had been treated with contempt.

Sturgeon was leader the last time SNP walked out - in 2018 - of the Commons after a Tory member spoke for the full 15 minutes they had been allocated to speak about devolution.

READ MORE: Speaker warned about rule change for Gaza motion – read letter in full

Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, accused Prime Minster Theresa May of breaking a promise to treat Scotland “as part of a union of equals”, adding that she had “pressed ahead with a power grab in direct opposition to Scotland’s elected Parliament”.

“It is a democratic outrage,” said Blackford. “The people of Scotland will not be disrespected by this Parliament.”

He then invoked an archaic procedure asking that the Commons “now sits in private”.

Then speaker John Bercow, after taking advice from parliamentary clerks, suggested the vote on sitting in private be taken at the end of Prime Minister’s Questions, but Blackford disagreed and refused to sit down when Bercow ordered him to.

Bercow then threw him out, quoting parliamentary rules - and as Blackford turned to walk out, he was immediately followed by the whole SNP contingent – a spectacle that for many demonstrated the “fire in the bellies of the SNP members”.