THE House of Lords must axe 200 peers as a matter of urgency, an influential group of MPs demanded last night.

They said the proposed 11-year timetable for cutting the bloated upper chamber by a quarter is too slow and its size is making it increasingly dysfunctional.

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee called for the PM to order a “two-out-one-in” policy to speed up the reduction.

Under this option a member would only be allowed to join when two leave.

Committee chairman Sir Bernard Jenkin said the size of the Lords should be capped at 600, as recommended in the Burns report, and a 15-year term introduced for new peers.

He said: “The House of Lords is of vital importance to the UK’s political system, carrying out important scrutiny and revising functions, but it is a problem that its size continues to grow exponentially.”

The committee called on party leaders to agree strict retirement targets to speed up reaching the 600 target.

The MPs also want a body to justify new appointments, which should be allocated to parties according to their vote share in the previous General Election, and also commit to greater diversity.

Crucially, the recommendations in the Burns report do not need legislation to come into effect.

They need the backing of the House of Lords itself and the PM, who needs to commit to limiting future appointments.

But the committee’s findings are likely to weigh heavily on peers and the PM.

The 792 peers make the Lords the world’s second largest legislative body after China’s People’s Congress.