Ed Miliband will tomorrow (Saturday) declare that the House of Lords should be replaced with an elected Senate that properly represents the towns, cities, regions and nations that make up the United Kingdom.

In a speech to Labour’s North West conference in Blackpool he will highlight figures showing the current system is failing to represent large parts of the UK.

- The North West has 86 per cent of London’s population but less than a fifth of the capital’s peers.

- London has more peers than the East Midlands, West Midlands, Wales, Northern Ireland, the North East and Yorkshire and Humber added together

- Outside London, there is a bias against metropolitan areas with major cities like Birmingham, Bristol, Belfast and Liverpool having little or no voice within the Lords.‎

He will set out details of Labour’s proposal to replace the House of Lords with an elected Senate of the Nations and Regions which will be considered in detail by the Constitutional Convention in the early phase of the next Labour Government.

Labour wants the new chamber to be based on representation of the regions and the four nations of the United Kingdom to ensure that a much better spread of people from across the country have their voice heard in Westminster.

This regional and national representation will avoid duplicating the constituency link of MPs and mark a clearly defined different role for the Senate.

Each region of England, as well as the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, will hold meetings prior to the UK-wide Constitutional Convention where people will be asked for views on the functions of the new Senate, as well as the most appropriate form of election.

The Constitutional Convention will consider whether the second chamber could also have built into it specific regional representation functions. .

It will also look at whether wider requirements should be placed on potential senators, regarding ties to the region or nation they represent such as the number of years residence or employment there.

Labour’s proposals for reforms in Westminster to represent the regions and nations complements Labour’s plan to transfer power out of Westminster all together with unprecedented devolution of funding to England’s regions, as well as giving Scotland and Wales more control over the decisions which affect them.

At Labour’s North-West Regional Conference, Mr Miliband is expected to say:

“We’re going to reverse a century of centralisation and make sure that £30 billion of resources is devolved to the city and country regions that need it.

“Labour has a radical plan for spreading power and prosperity across the great towns, cities regions and nations so that the recovery reaches your town square – not just the Square Mile of the City of London.

“We’re going to give areas the right to regulate their bus services, so that people can get around and businesses get the support they need to succeed. That means having the right routes and fairer fares for everyday people who use the buses. Not just in London but in cities and counties that wants these powers across England.

"And today I am announcing plans to give the regions and nations greater power and a stronger voice in Westminster too.

"When people say that they are turned off from politics and that it doesn’t represent them, we have to do something about it.

"It cannot be right that the North West has almost the same population as London but only a small fraction of London’s number of peers.

"London is our capital and one of the world’s great cities but it cannot be right London has more members of the House of Lords than the East Midlands, West Midlands, Wales, Northern Ireland, the North East and Yorkshire and Humber added together.

"And it cannot be right that those peers who do live outside London are less likely to be from great cities like Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol than they are to be living in less-populated rural areas.

"We will make the second chamber of Parliament truly a Senate of the Regions and Nations of our whole country.

"Because only when every part of our country has a voice at the heart of our politics can we be sure that our country is run for all and not just for some.”

Ends