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Nick Clegg said Liberal Democrats have a "duty" to not scupper plans for elected police commissioners, following a defeat in the Lords.
The deputy prime minister said his party would respect its role in the coalition after thirteen Lib Dem peers defied the government and voted against plans for elected police commissioners for England and Wales.
In an unexpected defeat last night, peers voted 188 to 176 to back the amendment that would see the commissioners appointed by policing panels, not the public.
A further 20 Lib Dem peers abstained from the vote.
The coalition agreement between the Lib Dems and Conservatives had committed the government to making the police accountable, through the appointment of a directly elected individual.
Appearing before the Commons political and constitutional reform committee today, Clegg was keen to stress the idea was not one that had been promoted by the Liberal Democrats.
He told MPs that the measures were part of the coalition agreement, which had "emanated from policies" worked up by the Conservative Party in opposition.
"That's why, for instance, notwithstanding the vote in the House of Lords yesterday on elected police commissioners, we the government will seek to overturn that in the House of Commons," Clegg said.
"It is a coalition agreement commitment and I take very seriously, even in cases which don't, as I say, flow from one side of the coalition, our collective duty to honour what we've said we were going to do in the coalition agreement.
"And that's why the government will seek to reverse that vote last night."
One of the Lib Dem peers who abstained in the vote, Baroness Hamwee, said the vote had reflected the intensity of feeling on the issue and had not been a deliberate show of strength.
The vice-chair of the Lib Dem backbench home affairs committee told Radio 4's Today programme: "It was not planned to be muscular or assertive but it was pretty kind of truthful. We are not so far from the Conservatives. Both parties want more democracy in the governance of policing.
"But what the coalition agreement said was that the new model should be subject to 'strict' checks and balances. There was certainly no confidence that what is in the Bill at present amounts to that.
"I hope what has happened is going to allow a rethink which will reflect better the coalition agreement."
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the Lords had "ripped the heart out" of the legislation.
She added: "David Cameron and Theresa May need to now recognise the strength of hostility and ditch the plans now."
Under the Police and Social Responsibility Bill, police authorities were due to be abolished by next May with police and crime commissioners being introduced to oversee each police force.
The first police commissioners would be elected on the same day as local elections in May 2012, and elections would be held every four years.
But the amendment states that the commissioners will be chosen by a local police and crime panel.
The bill will now return to the Commons.
A Home Office spokesman said the election of police and crime commissioners had been a "clear coalition agreement policy".
"So while we will consider the debate in the Lords, we will look to redress this in the Commons."
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