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BBC News 9 July 2012 Last updated at 12:19 ET 

The House of Lords is a "flawed institution" which exercises power without legitimacy, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has said.

Mr Clegg was addressing MPs as he opened a two-day debate on controversial government reform plans.

Many backbenchers are unhappy at the pledge to create a smaller and mostly elected second chamber of Parliament.

But the coalition says it is confident Lords reform, championed by the Liberal Democrats, will go ahead.

There has been criticism of the government's "programme motion", which would limit the amount of time MPs can spend discussing the issue to 10 days.

A letter opposing the current plans, signed by 70 Conservative MPs, has called for "full and unrestricted scrutiny" of the bill which will "pile a constitutional crisis on top of the economic crisis".

Signatories to the letter include a number of MPs elected in 2010, plus former Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind and select committee chairs Bernard Jenkin, James Arbuthnot and Bill Cash.

Labour says it will oppose the programme motion when a vote is held on it on Tuesday evening, while Conservative MPs could be forced to resign from any front bench jobs if they rebel.

Conor Burns, aide to Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson, told the BBC's Daily Politics he expected to lose his job for rebelling.

 

To read the rest of this story, visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18759639

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