MPs and peers oppose Nick Clegg on Lords reform Similarly, it is important that we allow some members to retain their outside interests - it helps the chamber remain in touch with the real world. The peer cited Julian Fellowes, the creator of the period soap opera Downton Abbey, and Professor Robert Winston, the eminent scientist, as two valued members of the Lords who would be lost if Mr Clegg's call for only full-time peers was enacted. However, the joint committee will back Mr Clegg over the balance of elected and unelected peers in the reformed chamber, with four out of five elected. One of the most contentious issues remains "transition" - how current peers who were nominated are eased out of Westminster. The Committee of 26 has equal numbers of MPs and peers, with nine Labour members, 10 Tories, one from the Democratic Unionist Party and three Lib Dems. The rest of the committee, which is chaired by the Labour Peer Baroness Andrews, is made up of independents or cross-benchers. Although House of Lords reform is often considered of little interest to the general public, senior Liberal Democrats are said to have become fixated with the issue. After losing the last year's referendum on electoral reform, Mr Clegg now believe changes to the upper house could be provide a lasting legacy of his party's time in office. While his blueprint for a reformed Lords was nominally drawn up on behalf of the Coalition, and he was publicly backed by David Cameron when he unveiled it in the Commons last year, there is in practice little support for it among Conservative MPs. Many Tories - include Cabinet ministers - oppose Lords reform altogether, fearing it would clog the parliamentary timetable and make the coalition look out of touch with voters. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, derided Lords reform while in opposition as a "third term issue." It is understood the committee will also recommend that changes made to the Lords would need to be put to the general public in another referendum. Neither the Lib Dems nor the Tories want to inflict a second vote of this kind on the public if it can be avoided. Mr Clegg's has become increasingly vocal about House of Lords in recent weeks. He recently sent out a briefing note to fellow Lib Dems claiming that failing to reform the Lords would left Britain "in the same league as Jordan, Belize and Burkina Faso" as countries that allowed political parties to select who sat in their upper house. A senior Liberal Democrat source said last night that the government was under no obligation to adopt the joint committee's proposals, but added that there may be room for compromise. "We always saw this as a collaborative process with the committee," the source said. We will wait to see the committee's report and then take a view. It may be possible to make amendments to the bill. However, we are quite clear that we feel a referendum will not be necessary on these changes.