David Cameron has been accused of rewarding his cronies after a list of new peers included businesswoman Michelle Mone, a former Tory minister who tried to claim expenses for his moat and another who once accused Scots of having their "snouts in the trough". 

The Prime Minister also gave former special advisers places in the Lords and other honours, Downing Street confirmed. 

Among those named as peers was ex-MP Douglas Hogg who in 2008 was at the centre of one of the most high-profile expenses scandal cases when it emerged he once filed a claim for cleaning the moat at his country home. 

Another new member of the Lords, former science minister David Willetts once wrote a memo to Margaret Thatcher suggesting that Scotland had its “snout in the trough” of public spending.

Documents released last year under the 30-year rule show that in 1985 Mr Willetts told the then Prime Minister: "The challenge is to find a politically achievable way of putting them on the same diet as the English."

Michelle Mone said she was "honoured and humbled" to have been made a Tory peer.

The entrepreneur was nominated by the Conservative party to take up a seat in the House of Lords.

Her elevation comes despite a raft of criticism over her recent appointment as business czar to a government review designed to get young people in deprived areas into business.

One multi-millionaire had written to David Cameron urging him not to make Ms Mone a peer for the sake of the "unity" of the UK.

But No 10 cited her role as "one of the UK's leading entrepreneurs" (who) sits on the Board of Directors for The Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust". It added that she "plays an active role in mentoring programmes, with a particular emphasis on encouraging entrepreneurship in the young". 

After the news was confirmed by Downing Street, Mone tweeted: "Honoured & humbled that PM has placed me into The House Of Lords.I promise to work V hard for our country. This one is for you Mum & Dad."

There were also peerages for former Better Together boss Alistair Darling, ex-Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell and the former Lib Dem MP for Gordon Sir Malcolm Bruce.
Danny Alexander, the former Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury who lost his Highlands seat to the SNP in May's General Election was given a knighthood, alongside another ex-Lib Dem minister Vince Cable.

Other former Tory ministers elevated to the Lords include ex-party leader William Hague, who served as Foreign Secretary for much of the last government, and Andrew Lansley, the ex-Health Secretary, as well as Conservative donor and former vice-treasurer James Lupton.

Former Labour ministers named included Peter Hain, David Blunkett, Dame Tessa Jowell and Paul Murphy, the former Northern Ireland Secretary credited as one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement. 

Overall 45 new peers are to join the Upper chamber as a result of the dissolution honours list, including 11 Lib Dems and eight Labour members. The additions mean the Lords now has more than 800 active members.

A further seven names put forward for peerages were rejected by a sleaze watchdog. They included Lib Dem David Laws who quit as Treasury Chief Secretary and was suspended from the Commons for seven days in 2010 over expenses breaches.

New Lib Dem leader Tim Farron revealed that Mr Alexander, who is thought to have turned down a peerage, is considering a return to frontline politics at Westminster. 
Mr Farron said: “He’s not ruled out coming back to politics but he’s not mentioned coming to Holyrood.”

Opposition parties accused Mr Cameron of rewarding Torry donors and members of his own "chumocracy". 

Kirsty Blackman, the SNP's Lords spokesman, said: “This is a sorry list of rejected and retired party politicians - cronies and hangers-on with big cheque books. 

"The message from David Cameron is – even if people reject your party at the ballot box you will be handed a seat in parliament for the rest of your life – because Mr Cameron ‘can’.

“It is an affront to democracy that politicians whose parties have been roundly rejected by the electorate can then re-appear in parliament a few weeks later and legislate for the rest of their lives without ever having to be accountable again. That is a scandal.”

She called on the Lib Dems, who believe the Lords should be reformed, to refuse their peerages.

Lucy Powell, Labour’s shadow cabinet minister, said: “David Cameron’s promise to cut the cost of politics lies in tatters.

At the election the Tories said they would make the House of Lords smaller, but they have done the opposite, leaving taxpayers with a multi-million pound bill for David Cameron’s new peers. 

“Time and again the Tories have rewarded those who have given them millions of pounds. At a time when families are struggling to make ends meet, people will see this as the Tories putting their cronies before the country.”

Other new peers include Mr Cameron's long-standing "gatekeeper" Kate Fall.
A host of Tory and Lib Dem special advisers (spads) have also been awarded CBEs, OBEs and MBEs. 

But a row erupted after it emerged that Mr Cameron awarded 'lower' honours to the Downing Street gardener and two catering assistants, who were given the British Empire Medal (BEM).

Mr Cameron has dismissed calls to reform the Lords to make it smaller and directly elected. 
Instead he has said he wants to focus on ensuring the political balance in the Lords is similar to that in the Commons, a shift that requires more Tory peers.

Downing Street said the honours were for public or political service. 

The Electoral Reform Society said the new peers would cost the taxpayer at least an extra £1.2 million a year.