Boris Johnson's plans to flood the House of Lords with dozens of cronies could "undermine public confidence in our parliamentary system", the Lords Speaker has warned.
Lord McFall of Alcluith urged Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss to show more restraint in appointing new peers in a letter first reported by the Sunday Times, comparing Theresa May's 43 appointments to 86 under Mr Johnson.
The Prime Minister is drawing up his resignation honours list, which is expected to include big ticket donors, including members of Mr Johnson’s “advisory committee” of donors said to be granted access to senior ministers in return for giving more than £250,000 to the party.
The Sunday Mirror revealed Conservative chairman Ben Elliot - whose firm has been accused of selling access to Prince Charles and boasting of links to “Russian elites” - is also being lined up for a gong.
Former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, Culture secretary Nadine Dorries and Sir Nicholas Soames - the former Tory MP and grandson of Winston Churchill - are understood to have been put on the list.
But the House of Lords Appointment Commission (Holac), which vets peerage nominations, is reportedly holding up Mr Johnson’s plans.
Lord McFall is trying to promote plans to grant statutory powers to the body in future.
In a letter to the Tory leadership hopefuls, Lord McFall praised the "exercise of restraint" shown by Ms May and criticised Mr Johnson for not following suit.
He said: "The current Prime Minister has taken a different approach to his predecessor, choosing not to exercise that same restraint, and making a significant number of appointments during his tenure - 86 in total, so far, which is far more than the committee recommended.
"As a result, despite the high number of retirements, there has been little progress in reducing the size of the House, which currently has over 800 members."
Efforts to slim down the House of Lords to 600 peers put forward in 2017 have stalled.
Lord McFall said: "A House of Lords that is too big - combined with the fact that some recently appointed members have not been especially active in their participation - undermines public confidence in our parliamentary system.
"I am sure you agree that public trust in politics and in our Parliament and constitution is crucial going forward."
Former Lords Speaker Baroness Hayman echoed his concerns and said there was fury among peers about efforts to swell the Tory benches.
She told the BBC's The World This Weekend programme: "The proposal is part of a trend to trash constitutional norms. So, in that sense, I think it's a very bad idea.
"It has all sorts of grave consequences. And I've actually been surprised at how much anger there is across the House, basically, to put a large number of predominantly Tory peers into the House now.
"The House of Lords has provided difficulties for the Government. No Government likes that. Most prime ministers understand that it's actually good for democracy for that to happen.
"I'm not sure Boris Johnson understands that having a challenging House of Lords actually improves Government policy and improves legislation."
A Government spokesman said: "Given retirements and departures, new members of the Lords continue to be needed.
"It is entirely proper for a prime minister and opposition parties to put forward names for a political peerage list."
