A senior Labour peer who has been expelled from the party after 54 years has pledged to fight for a wholly elected House of Lords.

Lord Stoddart, who was expelled after protesting at the selection of Shaun Woodward as Labour's general election candidate for St Helens North, said that a complete revision of the parliamentary constitution is needed.

Lord Stoddart said: "The Commons is no longer entitled to be the sole chamber. We have to have a proper second chamber that is elected and will share power with the Commons. At the moment we have a uni-cameral system masquerading as bi-cameral."

He also described government handling of the anti-terrorism bill before Christmas as "an absolute outrage". He said: "It was a huge bill with 130 clauses that was shoved through in three days. [The government] are letting the people of this country down."

The House of Lords is to debate the government's white paper on reform on January 9 and 10, which proposes axing the remaining 92 hereditary peers and creating 120 elected members - constituting one fifth of the reformed chamber.

Lord Stoddart was a government whip who served under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. He was suspended from the party whip in July last year, and he revealed on Thursday that he received a letter from the government's chief whip in the Lords that the suspension was to be made permanent.