A Liberal Democrat MP will this week urge his colleagues to reduce the size of the House of Commons.

Andrew George will use a Westminster Hall debate on Tuesday to make the case for a smaller legislature in response to the devolution of power to Scotland, Wales and the English regions.

The St Ives MP will say a reduction in the number of members from 659 to 500 would increase public trust in parliament and politicians.

The number of Scottish MPs is already to be cut at the next election to make constituencies more evenly balanced.

But George will claim this move should be extended throughout the rest of the UK.

He has already used a symbolic 10 minute rule bill to put the argument in the form of legislation, although without government support this has next to no chance of passing into law.

However he will use the debate to raise the profile of his cause, which he sees as a logical response to the moves to slim down the size of the public sector in other areas.

"MPs regularly get excited about the need for greater efficiencies in the delivery of public services. Indeed, the chancellor has pledged to cut the civil service by over 40,000 posts," he said.

"I think that our collective enthusiasm to achieve efficiencies in public service would sound a great deal more plausible if we demonstrated that we were prepared to find efficiencies in the way the House of Commons is managed.

"Expressions of 'regret' about disenchantment of the public towards politicians are usually accompanied by loud sounds of hand wringing which are swiftly followed by urgent efforts to do absolutely nothing about it.

"The public believe that we vote ourselves pay rises, favourable expenses, better pension arrangements and take any opportunity to go on overseas jollies at the tax payers expense.

"After agreeing to hand out some of our powers to the Scottish parliament, Welsh assembly, and a Greater London Authority, we should now acknowledge that it is difficult to any longer justify having quite so many MPs in the House of Commons.

"We should act now before a great deal more cynical public turns up the heat on us."