Nick Clegg says decision on Lords reform should not be 'subcontracted' to the British people

However Mr Clegg played down the prospect of a national vote on the issue. He said: “People who advocate referendums have to answer the following question: why is it we should spend millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money asking the British people a question which frankly most people don’t worry about very much and on which there is consensus between three main parties?”

A referendum similar to the vote on whether to adopt the Alternative Vote model of electing MPs – overwhelmingly rejected in the referendum – was not necessary because reform to the Lords was in the manifestos of all three main political parties.

He told the BBC’s Sunday Politics: “If you subcontract to the British people an issue that the politicians at Westminster just can't deal with, it is asking a lot of the British people.

"Last year we did have a referendum but that was when there was a very stark difference of opinion between the different political parties. That is not the case here.”

Mr Clegg conceded that very few – as little as one per cent of the population in a recent poll –thought Lords reform was a priority. He said: “There are many things that you deal which you know are significant but are not the subject of conversations in the pub or around the kitchen table.

“World trade rules are immensely important but they are not raised with me when I go canvassing in my Sheffield constituency. Just because is not talked about a great deal does not mean we should get the quality of democracy right.”

Reports at the weekend suggested that a number of senior Cabinet ministers, including Philip Hammond, Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Gove, Eric Pickles, Owen Paterson and Lord Strathclyde, had raised concerns about Lords reform at last week's Cabinet meeting.

Yesterday Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, said reform was needed, adding the Lords was a “curious historic anomaly” which was “ready for democracy”.

However, speaking on the Murnaghan programme on Sky News, he blamed the timing of the legislation to reform the Lords on the Lib Dems in the Coalition.

He said: “The Liberals probably have determined the timing, I think doing it now in this parliament has happened because the Liberals are anxious to get on with it.”

Mr Clarke added that he hoped "none of our backbenchers just want to do it because they are against the coalition of the Liberals Democrats and are against ot because they think it’s a Liberal Democrat thing".

Conservative MPs continued their opposition to the plans. James Clappison MP told The Daily Telegraph that voters would think Mr Clegg had “taken leave of his senses”. He said: “If he thinks this is an important issue he is completely out of touch with the real concerns of the electorate.”

Senior Conservative John Redwood warned Mr Cameron that he was dangerously out of step with his own party. He said: "I hope the Government is wise, and grasps that this is a topic which needs further discussion and thought," the MP insisted.

"It might be a good idea to seek a consensus first on what the Lords is for, before moving to thinking about how to choose its members. Now is not the time to legislate. I have never seen the Conservative Parliamentary party so at variance with its front bench on a single issue."

Mark Pritchard, another Tory MP, added that if a vote was offered on Lords reform then there had to be one on Britain’s membership of the European Union.

* Kenneth Clarke also appeared to confirm that Prime Minister David Cameron is planning to reshuffle his Cabinet later this year.

He said: "Tony Blair used to have some people in office for a few months which was completely useless so he is running government for the first half of the parliament and then he’ll reshape it at his own good time, as he wishes, in order to produce a government for the second half."