THE House of Lords maintains a “class-based hierarchy” and should be scrapped in favour of a new second chamber, the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) has said.

In a submission to the Labour Party’s justice and home affairs policy commission, the ERS said that reforming the democratic process is a necessary way to revive faith in democratic institutions after Brexit.

In the submission, the ERS proposes that a chamber based on the representation of territories and regions can help the country operate better and “bring politics closer to people.”

The examples of federal chambers in the US, Australia and Germany, where politicians are elected on a territorial basis, were shown as an example of what could be achieved.

It says that this could “improve the health of our democracy” and help to reverse the “toxic polarisation” of British politics.

A citizen-led English constitutional convention on potentially devolving national legislative powers to England was also suggested.