JOE Biden has said that America's lack of a House of Lords is what "sets this nation apart".

A video of the US President's speech was posted on Twitter and shared by independence campaign group YesScot.

Biden said America's democratic institutions "are not relics of another age".

He added: "We're a government of laws. Not of men, not of the people, of laws. I said it many times in the campaign. 

"Our democratic institutions are not relics of another age - they’re what sets this nation apart. They’re the guardrails of our democracy. That’s why there’s no President who’s a King. No Congress that’s a House of Lords.

"A judiciary doesn't serve the will of the president or exist to protect him or her. We have three co, equal branches of government ... Our President is not above the law. Justice serves the people. It doesn't protect the powerful."

The press has sometimes compared the US Senate to the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British Parliament. But senators actually have far greater power than the Lords and are more involved in legislation.

A report by SNP MP Tommy Sheppard published last year found there were 87 Lords whom it would be reasonable to describe as Scottish members of that institution - which is about one in nine.

Only 14% of Scottish Lords are women and 70% are aged over 65. Only one Scottish peer is aged under 45. Only one Scottish peer is from a BAME background.

READ MORE: SNP call for urgent review into Tories handing out life peerages to ‘chums’

Almost three in five went to a private school, compared to just 5% of the general population and 14% of them went to Eton College.

Earlier this week Boris Johnson said he had no plans to limit the number of peers in the House of Lords after calls for an inquiry into the institution.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson has 'no plans' to limit number of peers in the House of Lords

The system was described by Sheppard as “broken beyond repair”.

Last year the Prime Minister and Keir Starmer came under fire after packing the unelected Chamber with further party donors, friends and apparatchiks.

The appointment of Vote Leave co-founder Peter Cruddas caused controversy as the commission in charge of new peerages raised objections to the candidate.

But Johnson brushed aside concerns from the House of Lords Appointment Commission to elevate him to the upper house.

A statement on the gov.uk website insisted Johnson had “considered the commission’s advice and wider factors and conclude that, exceptionally, the nomination should proceed”.

There were 52 appointments overall last year, taking the number of peers to more than 830 – second in size only to the National People’s Congress of China.

It was recommended in the 2017 Burns Report that the number of peers is limited to 600, which would make it smaller than the elected House of Commons.

Now Cabinet Office minister Lord True has said Johnson doesn’t approve of the idea of limiting numbers in the Lords, and accused peers of having “unfairly attacked” Cruddas.

Lady Hayman, asking a private notice question, said of the Prime Minister: “He has now become the first prime minister to ever overturn the explicit advice of the Appointments Commission in relation to the propriety of an appointment, and this is not an ad hominem issue, it is an issue of real principle.”

In response Lord True said there are “no plans” to change the system, adding: “The House of Lords needs refreshing and the Prime Minister, as other prime ministers, is entitled to do that.”

He also said the reputation of the Lords rests “not on those who might come here soon but those of us who are here” and the way they conduct themselves.

READ MORE: House of Lords to back the Tory government's Brexit deal

Labour’s Baroness Blackstone said Johnson was ignoring a cross-party agreement to stop the size of the Lords from growing each year, with Lord True replying: “So far as the Burns Report numbers, neither this Prime Minister nor the previous prime minister assented to any limit on numbers.”

Lord Jay of Ewelme, a former Holac chairman , said of the watchdog: “Its advice was accepted by all prime ministers from Tony Blair to Theresa May.

“If its advice is discounted, the system pretty quickly falls into disrepute.”