Exclusive:Labour House of Lords: Ian Murray accuses SNP of 'wilful misunderstanding of how Parliament works' over backlash to Labour appointing new Lords

The shadow Scotland secretary insisted Labour wanting to appoint new peers while vowing to abolish the House of Lords was not hypocritical.

Shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray has accused the SNP of showing a “wilful misunderstanding of how Parliament works” following their response to Labour admitting the party would appoint new Lords.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party has vowed to abolish the House of Lords, but this week was accused of “old sleekit tricks” after admitting the party would fill the chamber with more peers to help implement their agenda in Government.

There are only 174 Labour peers, making up 22 per cent of the Lords, meaning any policy passed by the Commons in the event of a Labour Government could be blocked by Tory peers, who have 263. Sir Keir would need to ennoble almost 100 Labour politicians to prevent this.

Following accusations of hypocrisy, the shadow Scotland secretary has now claimed Humza Yousaf’s party is deliberately misrepresenting Labour’s position.

Mr Murray said: "You need a majority in the lords to be able to a, get your legislative agenda through and b, make the reforms you need to meet the aim of replacing it. It’s not difficult to understand.

“The SNP can cry outrage if they want, but do they not get the problem that the Tories have stuffed it? So if we want to be able to do anything in government, including Lords reform, we need the numbers. The SNP never need to worry about that as they can only ever be in opposition.

“The SNP have so little to offer they want to wilfully mislead the public. Does the SNP honestly think the next Labour government should be hampered by the Boris Johnson law-breaking cronies in the Lords?”.

Sir Keir’s spokesman suggested on Wednesday the reforms could take place before full abolition, such as getting rid of by-elections for the remaining hereditary peers.

The spokesman said: “There may be interim reforms along the way, I’m not ruling that out.”

Labour say new peers would be expected to back abolition, with the full details of the policy to be set out ahead of the next general election. In December, Sir Keir unveiled plans led by former prime minister Gordon Brown to replace the Lords with a democratic assembly of nations and regions.

Another former Labour prime minister, Tony Blair, appointed 36 Labour peers in 1997 – the year he came to power – and a further 19 in 1998.

David Cameron created 47 Tory peers in 2010 after he entered Downing Street, as well as 24 Liberal Democrats, to support the coalition government.

Responding to Mr Murray, SNP Tommy Sheppard claimed “the only thing difficult to understand is Labour's position on the House of Lords”.

He said: "For 113 years, Ian Murray's Labour party have promised to abolish this wholly undemocratic institution. However, when the opportunity arises, they run for the hills.

“The House of Lords fails at every level to represent or respect the views and wishes of the Scottish people. It has no place in a modern democracy, and is a key contributor to this broken Westminster system.

"Only independence offers real change to the people of Scotland, which would rid us of the undemocratic House of Lords once and for all.”