Robin Cook opened a marathon debate on Commons' modernisation on Tuesday with an impassioned plea for MPs to bring parliament into the modern era.

The Commons leader said he loved parliament and warned it would fall further into contempt unless MPs backed change.

As MPs met to debate an end to late night Commons sittings, shorter recesses and moves to make debates more topical, Cook mounted a robust defence of his reform agenda.

"I want the Commons to remain the great forum of our nation in which the views of the public find voice and in which their opinions are heard," he said.

"A Commons which derives its authority from the respect and trust of the public and because of that authority remains the crucible in which governments are forged and are broken.

"To retain that public support, the Commons must accept reform. I ask all those who share my love of this place to demonstrate it tonight by voting to bring it into the 21st Century."

The Livingstone MP said that the House of Commons was facing a "long term challenge to its legitimacy".

He urged MPs to accept responsibility for the "out of touch" and "eccentric" procedures of parliament.

"The best case for modernisation is that this House will lose its authority if it is seen by the population to be out of date," he warned.

"This is a parliament with a long history, stretching back over eight centuries," he said.

"That history can be a strength to this place. But it can also be a trap if we become too attached to our procedures because that is way that in which we have always done things."

Facing strong criticism from the opposition frontbench, Cook warned against "resisting change that is necessary to keep change of a rapidly changing world".

His comments came during the opening session of a seven hour debate into Commons modernisation.

Plans to reduce the Commons recess and wind-up parliamentary business in the early evening are bitterly opposed by some MPs.

The shadow Commons leader Eric Forth said MPs should be forced to "adjust and adapt" to the hours and stresses of parliamentary life.

Tuesday's knife-edge vote became a battleground between traditionalists and modernisers and has split opinion along the North-South divide.

A defeat is considered as a personal blow to the Commons leader - who has led calls for reform of MPs' working hours.

Under Cook's blueprint, the Commons would wind up at 7.00pm on two days each week.

MPs often sit to 10.30pm and beyond under current rules.

But critics said the reforms will only benefit MPs from London and the Home Counties.

Parliamentarians from the North and South West say they would prefer to maintain longer sittings and longer recesses.

The Labour MP Chris Mullin said early sittings would result in MPs "wandering the streets of the West End with too much time on their hands and too much money in their pockets".

Cook insists that the reform package will ensure that parliament becomes more efficient and will encourage more women to stand for parliament.

He said that most MPs will continue to work for 60 hours a week - but stressed that they would work at a more sociable hour.

"We are all busy people. Most of us will be back at our desks in the early morning," he told the Commons.

But he warned that TV coverage of MPs sitting well into the night gave the impression that politicians were "daft".

Traditionalists said the modernisation move is wrong - arguing that parliament should sit for as long as it takes to scrutinise legislation and the work of the government.

Forth headed opposition to change from the opposition frontbench.

"I believe that everything that the government is proposing makes life easier for MPs and easier for the government, and that surely isn't what parliament should be about," he warned.

"The House of Commons should be a vibrant place holding the government to account, making it difficult if necessary for the government.

"And I don't see that any of the proposals that are going to be before us do any of that at all, in fact quite the reverse.''

Whilst Cook believed that the majority of MPs support the move, he warned that they will have to turn out and vote if the measure is to be passed.

In the Commons last week, Cook told MPs that his recent survey of backbench opinion had revealed that a slim majority backed his reform blueprint - but conceded it was by no means a done deal.

"There is a narrow majority in favour of change. Whether that narrow majority succeeds on Tuesday depends entirely on whether those who support change turn up to vote for change," he said.