MP Andrew Mackinlay wants unelected cabinet ministers to be forced to defend their policies in the House of Commons.

The Labour MP locked horns with Gordon Brown over the issue during Prime Minister’s Question Time yesterday.

He said some junior ministers were nothing more than “superior parrots” and MPs should be able to quiz Business Secretary Lord Mandleson as well as Transport Secretary Lord Adonis at the despatch box.

He called on Gordon Brown to invite the Commons to change its standing orders allowing such a step to take place.

In Mr Brown’s latest Cabinet reshuffle, he promoted Lord Adonis to Cabinet and expanded the department run by Lord Mandelson, as well as giving him the titles First Secretary of State and Lord President of the Council.

Yet Thurrock MP Mr Mackinlay believes the move to put peers in the Cabinet means large areas of public policy are not being properly scrutinised.

Mr Mackinlay asked Mr Brown: “Will you invite the House of Commons to amend its standing orders to allow senior ministers who are in the House of Lords to come to this despatch box and defend their stewardship of their departments and pilot through legislation of which they are the principal architects? Even the most senior junior minister doing it will on occasions be nothing more than a superior parrot unless we have this change.”

Mr Brown replied: “We have a strong team of ministers in the House of Commons perfectly able to answer questions and carry out debates.

“But if you have proposals for constitutional innovation perhaps you can put them forward to the public administration committee.”

On Tuesday Mr MacKinlay also attacked the Prime Minister over plans for the controversial Iraq inquiry, which is to be held in private.

The MP said Mr Brown he had not answered the “key question” of whether people involved in the inquiry would give evidence on oath.

Nothing short of that would give the inquiry “veracity and integrity”, he said.