CAMPAIGNING Peer Lord Patel has shaken up the House of Lords just two months after his arrival -- by securing a new room at Westminster for Muslims to pray in.

Before Blackburn's newest Lord's arrival in Parliament on February 16, Muslims had to share the lady peers' retiring room.

This arrangement was widely considered to be unsatisfactory by Lord Patel and his fellow Muslims Lord Ahmed and Baroness Uddin.

The last straw came when Lord Patel went to the room for afternoon prayer -- and disturbed a baroness attempting to sleep off a migraine.

Lord Patel went to see Black Rod, the Westminster official in charge of the Lords, who promptly allocated the three Muslims the virtually unused peers' wives' room for their prayers.

The Blackburn peer is very pleased at his swift response. He said: "We are delighted. It is important for us to pray. Muslims pray five times a day. We have to do so except in special circumstances. The new arrangement is very good."

"The House of Lords officials were very good, very courteous and very swift in responding to my request.

"We are a multicultural society and multi-culturalism is the future of Britain.

"The Christians have their chapel in the crypt and now we have our prayer room in the Lords.

"It is good to see the Parliamentary authorities putting into practice what the government is trying to do."

A spokesman for Black Rod said: "It was a problem finding the Muslim peers a room. The whole Palace of Westminster is dreadfully overcrowded.

"I don't anticipate having to organise rooms for other religions in the near future but it might become an issue."