A PENDLE-based peer has warned that the House of Lords will look ridiculous if something isn’t done to cut the number of members.

Liberal Democrat Lord Tony Greaves, who is also a member of Pendle Council and represents the Waterside ward, said the House of Lords also needed to agree on what its purpose should be.

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The chamber currently has 775 eligible members which makes it the largest second chamber of any parliament in the world except China.

Speaking in a House of Lords debate, he said: “The problem is that the House is growing indefinitely.

“Therefore, unless somebody changes the way in which things are happening, it will continue to grow and at some stage its membership will be over 1,000 which would indeed make us look ridiculous.

“I think that most of us who are here have a pretty good idea of what it is for, because it is what we do.

“By and large, we do it fairly well.

“The problem is that, increasingly, people out there – the rest of the country and the rest of the world – do not know what we do.

“They do not understand it, and those journalists who do have given up trying to tell those who do not.”

Lord Greaves has suggested that one way to avoid further ridicule would be the immediate abolition of hereditary peers’ by-elections.

After the debate, Lord Greaves said: “It is very strange the House of Lords is going to spend so much time and energy on looking at how to reduce its numbers, while the Prime Minister David Cameron has just nominated 46 new peers. This has got to stop.”