FORMER Torfaen MP Paul Murphy, who now sits in the House of Lords, has backed a proposal to cut the number of Peers by more than 200.

There are currently 824 members in the House of Lords, but a recent report by the Lord Speaker's Committee recommended this should be reduced to about 600.

And, speaking in Parliament this week, Paul Murphy, who represented Torfaen from 1987 until 2015, threw his support behind the plan, calling it "practical, important and, most importantly, possible".

"Unless we try to ensure that this house is a reasonable size then we are doomed, particularly on the basis that the government want the membership of the House of Commons actually to go down."

Lord Murphy, who has been a Peer since 2015, added, with plans to cut the number of MPs by 50 currently in the pipeline, it "just does not make sense" not to reduce the size of the House of Lords at the same time.

But he said he was concerned by reports Theresa May was preparing to appoint between 25 and 56 new Peers in an effort to ensure the Brexit Bill passes through the Lords, saying it would "torpedo" the reform plans.