The House of Lords has been described as an "affront to democracy" by the SNP.

Thirty new peers were appointed to the Lords last week, and the SNP have pointed out that Scottish voters only elect 4% of the UK Parliament following the expansion. There are 59 Scottish MPs in the House of Commons with a total of 650 MPs and 785 Lords.

Three Scots were given seats in the chamber after nominations by party leaders with former Tory leader Annabel Goldie joining Glasgow businessman Sir William Haughey, who has given Labour more than £1 million since 2003, and former Liberal Democrat MSP Jeremy Purvis.

The SNP do not nominate members to the House of Lords and the party's position is that parliamentarians should be elected.

The party's Westminster leader Angus MacNeil said: "Under the Westminster system, we now have the ludicrous situation that there are far more legislators who are appointed than elected - and people in Scotland elect only 4% of the parliamentarians who hold powers over the economy, welfare, defence, our place in Europe, and many other crucial areas of policy.

"The UK parties nominating their own donors to the House of Lords is part and parcel of Westminster's crony culture ... It really is an affront to democracy that, at a time of economic austerity and cuts, this lavish anachronism grows in numbers, despite promise after promise that it will be reformed."