Baroness Boothroyd

Baroness Boothroyd has backed moves to create a new post of Speaker in the House of Lords.

The former Commons speaker said the centuries old tradition of having the lord chancellor fulfill the role should now be ended.

Her comments follow a report from the Commons constitutional affairs select committee, which also backed moves to reform the current system.

The government has also been pressing for reform, saying it is nonsense for a Cabinet minister in charge of a major department to be forced to spend hours sitting on the upper house's woolsack.

Baroness Boothroyd said that peers should look to duplicate the position in the lower house.

"I would really like to see a speaker of the House of Lords," she told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme.

"I don't go for the idea of somebody - a lord chancellor - who is head of the judiciary, a senior Cabinet minister and speaker of the Lords.

"I want somebody there who is going to look after that house and do a job there.

"The House of Lords likes to think that it regulates itself. To some extent it does, but to a large extent it doesn't. There is a good deal of decent work to be done there."

The peer, who as Betty Boothroyd was the first woman to occupy the speaker's chair, was also critical of of Tony Blair's plans to reform the composition of the Lords.

"I believe the prime minister started this reform without knowing the end result," she said.

"Now we have to take care of it ourselves and make the best of it."