Faith Minister Lord Bourne has called for Imams and Rabbis to get automatic places in the House of Lords alongside Church of England bishops

The Tory minister for faith has called for Imams and Rabbis to get automatic places in the House of Lords alongside Church of England bishops.

Lord Bourne, a junior Wales Office Minister, said he was in favour of adding 'other faiths' to the Lords.

Introducing other religions to the House of Lords would break centuries of tradition and require a change to the constitutional fabric of the UK.

There are currently 26 Lords Spiritual, all of whom are Church of England bishops and including the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.

The bishops have their seats because Church of England is the 'established' church with a privileged place in the monarchy and parliament.

Lord Bourne told The Times: 'I'd be more [for] adding other faiths.'

He said that there was a 'great value' in having bishops in the Lords but that 'broader representation' would be beneficial.

But he was slapped down by Theresa May's official spokesman, who said he was speaking in a personal capacity.

And former minister Sir Desmond Swayne dismissed the idea - questioning whether there was even a real call for the change in the country at large.

He said the established Church of England was an 'umbrella' under which all faiths take part in the public debate.

He told MailOnline: 'You can go to any Church of England church and they are so different from one another.

There are currently 26 Lords Spiritual, all of whom are Church of England bishops and including the Archbishops of Canterbury and York (pictured is Justin Welby during a Lords debate in July)

The bishops have their seats because Church of England is the 'established' church with a privileged place in the monarchy and parliament (pictured at the Archbishop of Canterbury with the Bishops of Gloucester and Crediton)

'It is an essentially English, tolerant institution. Therefore it lends itself to being an umbrella that all sorts of other religions can shelter under.

Former minister Sir Desmond Swayne (file) dismissed the idea - questioning whether there was even a real call for the change in the country at large.

'I would be reluctant to trade that. If it's not broken why fix it?'

Sir Desmond said the second biggest faith in the UK was the Catholic church, which bans its clerics from serving in legislature.

The PM's official spokesman said: 'The minister was expressing his personal view.

'The Prime Minister has been clear that there should be restraint on new appointments.'

Britain is one of only two nations, with Iran, to reserve places in its parliament for unelected religious leaders.

Clergymen used to outnumber secular lords in parliament. They were kicked out altogether in 1642 during the Civil War but were reinstated in 1661; their number was fixed at 26 in 1847.

The Lords Spiritual survived Labour attempts to reform the House of Lords in 1997 and would have been left in place even under coalition plans for Lords elections.

The Archbishop of Canterbury courted controversy yesterday, telling the TUC conference the universal credit welfare reform should be halted and criticising the 'gig economy' as a modern evil.