The Labour leadership contender wants the House of Lords to be scrapped. Credit: PA

Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham has branded the House of Lords "a national embarrassment" and wants it to be scrapped. The MP for Leigh posted his comments about the upper house to the social media site Twitter.

Andy Burnham @andyburnhammp Follow It's official: the Lords is now a national embarrassment. We should scrap it & replace with indirectly-elected Senate of regions & nations.

Mr Burnham proposed that a better alternative would be an "indirectly-elected Senate of regions and nations". He said that he favoured a proportional second chamber built from votes for the House of Commons, which would make every vote count. On the subject of reforms to the House of Lords, Downing Street has said that David Cameron is willing to consider new all-party talks to address issues.

The total number of members in the House of Lords is now 826. Credit: PA