The forthcoming list of 28 working peers, which has been obtained by The Times, includes Sir David Garrard and Sir Gulam Noon, each of whom made donations of more than £200,000 to Labour. Sir David had previously dona-ted £70,000 to the Tory party when William Hague was the leader, to pay for a call centre at Conservative Central Office. The party was so grateful that it put up a plaque in his honour.

The property millionaire also attended a meeting in the autumn of 2003 for other potential donors with Michael Howard, shortly after he became leader of the Conservative Party.

The new Conservative peers, nominated by Mr Howard, include Robert Edmiston, who gave the party £250,000 last year, and the Tory treasurer Jona-than Marland, who gives £50,000 a year and leads its fundraising operation. The Labour nominations follow Mr Blair’s decision last year to give a peerage to Paul Drayson, a businessman who had already given £100,000 to Labour and who subsequently made a donation of £500,000. He has since been made a defence minister.

David Trimble, the former leader of the Ulster Unionist Party who lost his seat in the general election, is also awarded a peerage.

The Times disclosure also exposes an astounding row at the heart of the Green Party over its one nomination.

The list confirms the recent trend under which the financial supporters of major parties are being awarded seats in the Lords intended for working parliamentarians, with Labour implicated as much as the Conservatives.

It will confirm a belief increasingly taking hold in the Lords that an unofficial threshold of donations of about £250,000 is operated by the major parties when considering nominations for peerages.

The previous list of working peers, published in May last year, included four major donors to the Tory party nominated by Iain Duncan Smith: Irvine Laidlaw, Stanley Kalms, Leonard Steinberg and Greville Howard.

The list of new peers was attacked last night by Martin Bell, the former Independent MP for Tatton and anti-sleaze campaigner, who claimed that the system for appointing peers was more contaminated now than for 80 years.

Mr Bell told The Times: “The sale and purchase of peerages has reached a level, I would say, not known since the time of Lloyd George. This brings politics into disrepute. We have a huge problem of public trust in public life, all the more after last week. How can people trust their politicians?” The list, which Downing Street is expected to publish this month, will create eleven Labour peers, eight Conservatives, five Liberal Democrats and three Democratic Unionists and one Ulster Unionist Party peer.

The numbers will entrench Labour’s new-found position since May as the largest party in the Lords, giving it 221 peers to the Tories’ 216, although the presence of 192 cross-benchers means no party will have a majority. The Lib Dems will have a 79-strong group in the Lords.

Elsewhere in the list, Ian Paisley, the Democratic Unionist Party leader, has nominated his wife Eileen as one of his peers.

The list would have been larger but for a bizarre row within the Green Party, to which Downing Street offered a rare opportunity to nominate a name. This invitation, however, plunged the party into a feud. The Greens submitted the name of their chairman, Hugo Charlton. But it was rejected by Downing Street when it emerged that he had signed the nomination form himself, which is not permitted. The Greens eschew a formal leader, preferring two “principal speakers”, but the form was sent to him as the chairman is registered as the leader for legal purposes. A Green source told The Times that he did so without consultation and in defiance of an internal procedure under which members seeking a peerage should apply to a panel, undergo an interview and, if approved, stand in a members ballot. Mr Charlton was suspended as chairman and his nomination withdrawn by the Greens.

Labour’s peers include Sir Bill Morris, the former transport workers’ leader, two ex-MPs, Keith Bradley and Joyce Quin, plus Maggie Jones, a former member of the National Executive Committee who contested Blaenau Gwent but was defeated by an independent Labour candidate, Peter Law.

The Tories have nominated two Asian peers: Sandip Verma, who contested Wolverhampton South West in the election, and Mohammad Sheikh, a lawyer from Croydon.

Two ex-Lib Dem MPs are to become peers, John Burnett and Brian Cotter, plus former MEP Robin Teverson, and John Lee, a one-time Tory minister who defected to the Lib Dems four years ago.

The biggest donor in the Tory list is Robert Edmiston, who chairs the Midland Industrial Council, which gives the Tories a six-figure donation each year, rising closer to £500,000 in election year. Last year he gave £250,000 of his own money to the party.

Mr Edmiston, who imports cars from the Far East, is regularly in the top ten of charitable donors in Britain. In 2004 he gave £27 million to the charity Christian Vision.

Full list of working peers

LABOUR (11)

Colin Boyd, 52, Lord Advocate of Scotland in Scottish Executive
Keith Bradley, 55, defeated as MP for Manchester Withington in May Margaret Ford, 47, chairman of English Partnerships; director of Scottish Prison Service, Thus Group and Serco
Sir David Garrard property millioniare, gave £200,000 to Labour. Previously gave £70,000 to Tories
Maggie Jones union official with Unison; former NEC member; defeated by independent candidate at Blaenau Gwent
Denise Kingsmill, 58, director MFI Furniture Group and Manpower UK; former deputy chairman of Competition Commission
Sir Bill Morris, 67, General Secretary of TGWU from 1992-2003
Sir Gulam Noon, 69, founder and chairman, Noon Products; gave £220,250 to Labour in nine donations since 2001
Chai Patel, 69, chief executive officer, Priory Group; founder, Care First plc; former chief executive, Westminster Health Care
Joyce Quin, 60, former MP and MEP, retired in May
Barry Townsley, 59, founder of stockbroking firm Townsley & Co; chairman of Dawnay, Day Townsley

CONSERVATIVE (8)

Robert Edmiston, 59, chairman and chief executive of IM Group (car importers); chairman of Midland Industrial council; Christian philanthropist who gave £250,000 to Tories
David James business troubleshooter brought in to save Millennium Dome from financial collapse; architect of Tory review to find £35 billion in Whitehall cuts
Rodney Leach, 71, director of Jardine Matheson Holdings; chairman of Business for Sterling
Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, 63, leader of Kent County Council; chairman of Local Government Association Jonathan Marland Conservative Party treasurer; chairman of Herriott Ltd, Janspeed Ltd, Harnham Water Meadows Trust and Odstock Properties Ltd
Mohamed Sheikh, solicitor from Croydon, donated £38,000 to the Conmservative Party John Taylor, 61, former Conservative Deputy Chairman and Chairman of National Conservative Convention
Sandip Verma, 45, Leicester businesswoman, fought Wolverhampton South West for Tories

LIB DEM (5)

John Burnett, 60, MP for Devon West and Torridge 1997-2005, retired in May
Brian Cotter, 69, defeated as MP for Weston-super-Mare
John Lee, 63, Tory MP for Nelson and Colne, then Pendle 1979-1992; Minister for Defence, Employment, Tourism; switched to Lib Dems 2001
Robin Teverson, 53, MEP for Cornwall and West Plymouth 1994-99; chief executive of Finance Cornwall
Celia Thomas, long-serving head of Lib Dem whips’ office in House of Lords

DUP (3)

Wallace Browne Belfast City councillor Maurice Morrow Northern Ireland Assembly member
Eileen Paisley wife of the the Rev Ian Paisley, DUP leader

UUP

David Trimble, 61, ex-leader of Ulster Unionists and joint architect of Northern Ireland peace process, defeated by DUP in May