People are "terrified" of entering the benefits system if they lose their job, SNP MP Mhairi Black has claimed.

The Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP made the comments in the Commons as she put forward reforms to the benefit sanctions system which Jobcentre staff use.

Black was proposing a private members' bill to establish a code of conduct for Jobcentre sanctions.

It aims to ensure an individual's personal circumstances would be taken into account when staff decided whether or not to pursue a sanction.

The MP said: "To understand the logic behind the bill, we need to appreciate that people feel anxious.

"They are terrified of the process that they will have to endure if they lose their job.

"We can debate whether that fear and anxiety is legitimate but the reality is that people are scared."

She added: "We need to examine the current process that people have to endure.

"If a claimant is deemed to have failed to meet a condition of jobseekers allowance - failing to attend an interview, being unavailable for work or leaving a job voluntarily - they are subject to benefit sanctions, meaning that their benefits are stopped for period."

The bill was talked out of the Commons, meaning it will not make any further progress.

Black has requested the bill be debated again in February but it is unlikely to be given any more time.

During the debate the SNP MP quoted Glaswegian comedian Kevin Bridges when mocking her opponents' understanding of unemployment.

"I will do something quite unorthodox here and quote from what probably constitutes as a national treasure, Kevin Bridges," she announced.

"He rightly said that if politicians really think that people are choosing to be vilified by those with power all so that they can sit in their boxers watching Storage Wars on a Tuesday afternoon eating Quavers, then they are really not living in the real world."

Black's speech drew criticism from Conservative MPs, including former justice minister Michael Gove.

The SNP politician described South Thanet, an area which she visited as part of her with the work and pensions committee on benefits, as a "leafy, prosperous, happy, Conservative suburb".

Gove retorted that South Thanet is "not a leafy suburb" and it is "one of the most deprived parts of south east England".

"Members of the Scottish National party should not be selective in their championing of those suffering poverty," he said.

Black and fellow SNP MPs were criticised by Conor Burns, the Conservative MP for Bournemouth West, for not discussing the role of the taxpayer in the benefits system.

Burns said: "Every benefit that is paid to a benefit claimant is paid out of the receipts that the Government take in tax.

"The honourable member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South referred at one point to something that would cost the government. The government do not have any money, the government have only taxpayers' money."

Before the debate director Ken Loach offered his support for the proposed changes to the benefits system.

Black was, however, heckled in the Commons when she referenced Loach's recent film I, Daniel Blake as part of her speech.

Conservative MP David Nuttall shouted "it's fiction" before leaving the chamber.