Tony Blair is being urged to scrap the body set up to choose "people's peers" to sit in the House of Lords.

The appointments commission was set up in May 2000 to assist with the transitional phase in reforming the House of Lords.

Its launch was heralded as a sign that a reformed upper house would be more accessible to the British people, with anyone able to nominate a candidate for consideration.

But it came under fire when its first, and only, list of nominations was announced in April 2001.

Critics said that in choosing candidates such as Baroness Howe of Idlicote, wife of former foreign secretary Lord Howe, or Sir David Hannay, Britain's former ambassador to the United Nations, the commission had limited its choices to "the great and good".

And with no new nominations announced in the last two years, Labour MPs are now calling for the body to be scrapped.

A group of 13 backbenchers have backed a Commons motion expressing "deep concern" that it has cost £120,000 to run the committee over the last 12 months, even though the members have only met twice.

"The commission no longer serves a useful purpose, if it ever did, and should be wound up forthwith," said the MPs.