Campaigners for reform of the House of Lords yesterday urged Labour party members to ignore a plea for unity from cabinet enforcer Mo Mowlam dismissing her arguments as "weak".Mowlam is set to write to all delegates attending next week's party conference urging them to vote against a rebel motion by the Campaign to Reform the Upper House calling for the majority of Lords to be elected.

Charter 88, a leading group in efforts to modernise the Lords, believes the government's plans for "people's peers" do not go far enough. A spokesman tells epxNews: "Even the rebel motion at conference does not go far enough - we prefer a fully elected upper house - but this is better than what the government is offering. We will urge delegates to vote for the motion."

The group dismissed Mowlam's claim that selecting peers by committee with approval from the prime minister was the only way to defend women, the disabled and people from ethnic minorities. "The argument is frankly quite weak. We don't buy the it - there are other ways of achieving this. We want an electable house that's taken seriously by the public," the spokesman said.