Only "bullying" peers get heard in debates in the House of Lords, a former MP has claimed.

Peers who do not like "jostling" and "bullying" in order to be heard in the oral questions session simply do not take part, Lord Dubbs said.

Lord Dubbs, who took part in prime minister's questions under Margaret Thatcher as Labour MP for Battersea, said the way peers operated during the usually noisy questions session was "very undignified".

"Polite" peers from all sections of the House were being affected, he added during the oral questions session on 7 July 2014.

Fellow Labour peer Lord Campbell-Savours told peers that a Lord Speaker with similar powers to the Speaker in the House of Commons was needed.

The current practice of peers self regulating the House of Lords "doesn't work" and created "animosity" amongst colleagues, he said.

Leader of the House Lord Hill of Oareford agreed that more transparency in which peers were asking questions was needed, as some peers were being heard at the expense of more "shy" peers.

He added that in his opinion, however, most of the time the House operated "pretty well" at letting peers ask questions if they wanted to.