A PROSPECTIVE MP in Bristol has called for the House of Lords to be scrapped and replaced with an elected second chamber.

Barrister Sam Townend, Labour's parliamentary candidate for Bristol North West, said: "We need to throw the whole lot out and start again with a transparent and accountable system."

He said the House of Lords currently has four members who claim by their titles to have some connection to Bristol.

He said three of them, Lord Waldegrave of North Hill, Lord Carey of Clifton, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and the novelist and former convict Lord Jeffrey Archer of Weston-super-Mare had not taken part in a single debate or asked a single question in the past two years.

The fourth, former Bristol Labour MP Jean Corston, now known as Baroness Corston of St George, had taken part in 41 per cent of divisions in the House of Lords since 2005.