Membership in the house now stands at 830, a move that the Lord Speaker said runs “smack against” the recommendations of a Lords committee to keep numbers down to 600.

Lord Fowler also said it was “nonsense” that Mr Johnson was able to overrule the House of Lords Appointments Commission after he nominated Tory donor Peter Cruddas in spite of the committee’s reservations about him.

The role of the commission must be reviewed as a matter of urgency, he said.

Mr Johnson faced claims of cronyism earlier this year after securing peerages for his brother Jo Johnson, Russian newspaper magnate Evgeny Lebedev and other including Brexiteers Daniel Hannan, a former MEP who once said the Lords was being flooded with “inconsequential nobodies”, and Sir Ian Botham.

Mr Cruddas has donated more than £3 million to the Conservatives since 2007. He resigned as co-treasurer of the party in 2012 in the wake of a newspaper story that suggested he was offering access to then Prime Minister David Cameron for a donation of £250,000 a year. He also donated £50,000 to Mr Johnson’s leadership campaign last June.

Lord Fowler said: “This list will bring the total in the House of Lords to over 830 – almost 200 more than the House of Commons.

“My concern remains that the central defect is the present system of appointments. Unlike other senates in democratic countries, there is no limit on the number of members there can be. Any prime minister can appoint as many as he or she likes. To her great credit Mrs May committed her government to a policy of ‘moderation’.

“Those words seem to have been forgotten. It may now be the time to review the role and the powers of the House of Lords Appointments Commission.”

He added: “To add insult to injury, for the second time the announcement of new peers was made when parliament is not sitting.”