Elected Lords' role is backed by Cook

Robin Cook poured scorn on supporters of an appointed House of Lords yesterday and rebuffed claims by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, that a part-elected second chamber was "nonsense".

In a debate on reform of the second chamber, Mr Cook, the Leader of the Commons, made plain his support for a largely elected Lords.

But he insisted the Government would not express a view on reform, despite reports that Tony Blair was backing a fully appointed House.

Mr Cook pointed to a poll showing that only 3 per cent of voters backed an unelected House of Lords and rejected claims that elected peers would threaten the primacy of the Commons.

He said: "It is possible to keep a second chamber subordinate by the law. What I do not believe is sustainable is to keep the second chamber subordinate by denying it legitimacy. That does not just weaken the second chamber, but undermines Parliament."

William Hague, the former Tory leader, urged MPs to back a substantially elected second chamber. "I certainly favour the majority-elected option and I hope the vast majority will vote against a minority- elected option," he said.

The Liberal Democrat frontbencher Paul Tyler called for a slimmed-down House. He said: "We do not want democracy on the cheap, but we do want it to be cost-effective and the most cost-effective House is one that is predominantly elected and therefore enabled to be a smaller House."