The Government's hopes of securing a consensus on the future of the House of Lords looks in doubt as their proposed measures failed to receive cross-party support.
Reform proposals from the Leader of the Commons Jack Straw suggested the Lords could be reduced in size by a third and life peerages abolished.
Mr Straw, who had previously set himself against any elected element, also indicated he may contemplate a 50-50 split between elected and appointed members.
But hopes this shift could break the deadlock on the issue seem unfounded after the proposals were criticised for not going far enough.
The proposals, which were leaked to the Sunday Times, were set out in a document presented to a cross-party committee seeking consensus on the future of the Upper House, of which Mr Straw is chair. They also proposed quotas for women and ethnic minorities and that members of the Upper House would be paid a salary and expected to work full-time.
Conservative Leader in the House of Lords, Lord Strathclyde, said that "the reform process has a long way to go".
He said: "We are in favour of replacing Labour's cronyism with an elected House of Lords with more powers which will be better able to hold an over-mighty Government to account."
Liberal Democrat constitutional affairs spokesman Simon Hughes greeted the proposals as a "welcome first stab at a package of reforms which were greatly overdue", adding: "But Jack Straw has so far failed to grasp the fundamental point: the replacement of the House of Lords must be predominantly elected."
Senior Tory MP Sir Patrick Cormack said he "sincerely hoped" the leak was incorrect but if not, that it indicated Jack Straw had "totally taken leave of his constitutional senses".
The long-standing MP for Staffordshire South said: "These proposals would be a prescription for constitutional mayhem, setting the two chambers against each other and that would, in effect, not mean the reform but the abolition of the House of Lords."
