MPS today called for a ban on individual donations to political parties and to block former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss’s resignation honours.

The government was accused of taking “cash for honours” a day after a parliamentary inquiry into House of Lords appointments was announced amid widespread criticism of Mr Johnson’s list.

Labour MP Jon Trickett MP told the Commons that 27 members of the House of Lords had donated £50 million to the Conservative Party and that one in 10 Tory peers had given more than £100,000 to the party.

The MP for Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, asked: “Is this just an unfortunate coincidence or are we seeing a return to cash for honours? 

“Wouldn’t the simplest way of dealing with this utter scandal to say that no-one who makes donations to political parties can receive an honour in the future?” 

Shadow climate change minister Kerry McCarthy MP said: “It should be obvious to anyone that this former dishonourable member [Boris Johnson], a man who won’t even be allowed back onto the estate without an escort, should not be doling out honours.”

She said a “stronger more principled prime minister” would have recognised “that any convention that allows such a man to install his discredited cronies as peers might need changing rather than blindly following.”

Mr Johnson’s list included Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen, the former prime minister’s 29-year-old former assistant Charlotte Owen and failed Tory London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey.

SNP Cabinet Office spokesperson Kirsty Blackman said Mr Bailey should not be given a seat in the House of Lords after a video emerged of a mid-lockdown Christmas party he hosted at Conservative Party headquarters in December 2020.

She said: “Just because something has been convention since 1895 doesn’t mean that we should continue doing it.

“If the dishonourable member [Mr Johnson] for the Chiltern Hundreds’ antics were not bad enough, convention now dictates that the 49-day former prime minister [Ms Truss] who crashed the economy which directly contributed to the mortgage rate rises people are struggling with will also get to make nominations.”

Conservative former minister John Penrose said: “As proven by recent controversies, the system has to be transparently meritocratic.”

Cabinet member Alex  Burghart said: “There is a long-standing convention from 1895 that outgoing prime ministers have a resignation honours list.”