William Hague defends the current House of Lords on Breakfast with Frost

Speaking on BBC One's Breakfast with Frost, Mr Hague criticised Labour's apparent plans for reforms of the House claiming it would create a quango in the second chamber.

Reports in Saturday's newspapers said that Labour was going ahead with their reforms of the unelected body following the breakdown of talks with the opposition.

The government will introduce legislation in parliament later this year to abolish the right of hereditary peers to sit in the House, the Daily Telegraph said.

Mr Hague told Sir David Frost the talks had failed because Labour would not say it wanted to happen to the chamber.

He said he was not committed to preserving hereditary peers but opposed Labour's first tier plan for reform of the Lords.

Hague - Lords reform would make the Parliament less democratic

Mr Hague said: "They had the opportunity here to come forward with plans for a second chamber of a different nature, to change the House of Lords into something else.

"I don't think that is a great national priority at a time when health service waiting lists are rising, class sizes are rising and interests rates are going up, I don't thinking messing around with the House of Lords is at the top of this nation's agenda.

"But they've had an opportunity to come forward with a different plan for what the second chamber should be like and we would have talked to them about it.

"They have failed to produce that plan, they don't know what they actually want to do to the House of Lords so they've falling back on their contingency plan which is to just get rid of the heredity peers."

He said the resulting House would merely be a "huge quango" which would be less independent.

William Hague is approaching his first anniversary as party leader

The reforms were motivated by Labour wanting more power as independent Lords were replaced by those selected by the government, Mr Hague told the programme.

He said: "We would be opposed to having a second chamber just a collection of people appointed by the recent prime minister and the prime minister of the day.

"It is a tragedy if Labour Party think that amounts to reform of the House of Lords.