Robin Cook has moved to calm backbench fears about a possible delay in the establishment of select committees.

The new leader of the House, Cook, told MPs on Thursday that he would not delay appointing the chairmen of the committees but said he would need the help of the opposition parties in order to do so.

Cook told the Commons that the committees would be set up "as soon as possible" for the simple reason that the government had a large amount of legislation that it wanted to bring to the House.

He warned: "It will require the co-operation of the House in order to fulfil this very tight timetable."

Cook, in his first performance at the despatch box since being demoted, pledged to modernise some of the Commons more archaic practices but argued that the long hours of debate were due to opposition delaying tactics.

"It is important that the House carries out effective scrutiny but wasting the House's time is not effective scrutiny," Cook warned.

He added that attempts to destroy the government's legislative programme would only serve to further alienate the Commons from the public. "Nothing would bring parliamentary democracy into greater disrepute than if the government was unable to deliver on its manifesto policies," Cook said.

He also confirmed that the government wanted to see the issue of fox-hunting resolved soon. "Many people in the House, whatever their view on the substance of the issue, would like to see this matter resolved in the current session," he told MPs