Flood of new Coalition peers draws protests from Labour

An unusual mixture of show-business names, party loyalists and political donors are to be sent to the overcrowded red leather benches of the House of Lords.

The 54 new peers were announced yesterday, taking the total strength of the Upper House to almost 800 – the biggest number for more than a decade.

Forty-two of the new arrivals are either Tories or Liberal Democrats, sparking Opposition protests that the Coalition partners were trying to pack the Lords in their favour.

The influx of new blood means the House of Lords will have its most members since 1999, when the previous government scrapped the right of most hereditary peers to sit in Parliament.

The sharp increase – an extra 85 peers have been appointed since the election – appears to run counter to David Cameron's promise to cut the cost of politics.

Mr Cameron and the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, sought to sprinkle some stardust on their appointments, perhaps mindful that other appointees had funded their parties or were long-serving apparatchiks.

The Prime Minister elevated Julian Fellowes, the creator of the ITV period drama Downtown Abbey who also won an Oscar for the film Gosford Park, to the Lords.

He will be joined on the Tory benches by the celebrity divorce lawyer Fiona Shackleton, who was doused with water by Heather Mills during her acrimonious court battle with Sir Paul McCartney in 2008.

Sir Michael Grade, the former boss of the BBC and ITV, will also become a Conservative peer, while Joan Bakewell, the broadcaster forever dogged by the label of "the thinking man's crumpet", will join the Labour side.

Tory ranks will be swollen by two party donors – Stanley Fink, who has given the party £1.9m since 2003, and Bob Edmiston, the millionaire car importer who converted a £2m loan into a donation four years ago. Sir Gulam Noon, the millionaire "curry king" who has given Labour more than £500,000 over the last decade, will also join the opposition benches.

Mr Edmiston and Sir Gulam were questioned under caution as part of the 2007 police inquiry into whether loans were made in return for an honour. No charges were brought and the investigation concluded without any prosecution.

Angus MacNeil, the Scottish National Party member whose complaint provoked the police investigation, said: "David Cameron should be mindful of the mess Tony Blair found himself in over the appointment of party donors to the Lords. There should be no link between donations and peerages, but we again have big donors being elevated to the Lords. This is supposed to be a democracy, but the UK Parliament now has more unelected peers than it has elected MPs."

Mr Cameron's spokesman said the new peers were vetted by the House of Lords Appointments Commission – and all donors had to declare their gifts to the Electoral Commission.

In total, 27 new Tory peers were named yesterday, along with 15 Liberal Democrats, 10 Labour peers and one from Plaid Cymru. General Sir Richard Dannatt, previously nominated by Mr Cameron, will sit as a crossbencher.