FORMER East Lancashire MPs David Waddington and Doug Hoyle have clashed over government plans to kick hereditary peers out of Parliament.

The row erupted as the House of Lords debated the Queen's Speech setting out the government's legislative programme for the coming year.

Former Ribble Valley MP Lord Waddington -- an ex Home Secretary -- accused the government of "ratting" on its promise not to pick the final 92 hereditary peers out of Westminster's Upper Chamber until the final reform blue print has been agreed.

But Lord Hoyle -- who for many years represented Nelson and Colne and whose son Lindsay sits for Chorley in the Commons -- said it was essential to get rid of the last vestiges of hereditary patronage. He said that this was "not an end in itself but a beginning".

Lord Waddington -- who acted as Tory chief Whip in the Commons and the leader of the Lords -- said: "The issue today is not how this House should eventually be composed -- whether it should be nominated or elected, or part elected and part nominated.

"It is about the government ratting on an undertaking."

Lord Waddington said that in 1999 the government agreed to allow the hereditary peers to elected 92 of their number to continue to sit in order to get the first stage of their reforms through Parliament.

He said: "The government said they would remain until second stage reform had taken place with their presence being a firm guarantee that stage two would come about.

"We on the Tory benches were greatly reassured.

"We accepted the government's word and being accustomed to honest dealing in this place, never thought that they would go back on it."

Lord Waddington said Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer now said the government was entitled to break that promise because circumstances had changed.

He added: "It will haunt the government. It will sour dealings between front benches in this place because this chamber will not work very well if the government's word could not be believed."

He said that the end result would be a less independent and less effective House of Lords which could be manipulated by the government.

But Lord Hoyle - who wants to scrap Peers ermine robes and call them Senators -- said that the vital first step was to get rid of the 92 hereditaries.

He said: "The one thing that cannot be defended is why they are here.

"They are here by accident of birth, which can no longer be defended in a democratic society. The time has come for them to go."