As a first step, the Government is committed to ending the right of existing hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords, a ruling that will effect over 600 members.

More than half of them take the Conservative Whip while Labour and the Liberal Democrats have just 40 peers between them.

Some MPs believe a totally elected chamber is the only way to achieve total independence from the elected government.

Tony Benn: Government shoud adopt a completely new approach

The Labour MP Tony Benn said the present system should be radically altered.

"We should get rid of the present House of Lords, both hereditary and appointed, and elect [instead]," he said.

"If we had one man and one woman elected in every European constituency we'd have 174 members of the second chamber -- a small second chamber -- and that would be the end of the matter."

Conservatives say that if the Government wants true reform then it must go further than simply scrapping the rights of hereditary peers.

The shadow leader of the Lords Viscount Cranbourne said the Government must now propose a better system than the existing one.

"If you're going to reform then you must replace it simultaneously with something at least as independent. Otherwise you're presiding over an enormous increase in the power of patronage," he said.