No salary for members of reformed House of Lords

David Cameron will attempt to head off a gathering revolt in Tory ranks over reforming the House of Lords by scrapping the idea of paying members of a reformed chamber a salary.

Instead of being paid around £60,000 a year, as previously proposed, members of the reformed house would have to sign in to claim a £300 daily attendance allowance, which would be likely to keep their earnings well below £60,000 most years. Currently, peers sit for an average of around 150 days a year.

The Cabinet is due to finalise proposals for abolishing the current House of Lords reform when it meets today. It is expected to propose a chamber of 450 "senators", 80 per cent of whom would be elected to serve 15-year terms, and 20 per cent appointed.

Nick Clegg is anxious to push through the proposal, but many Tory MPs are determined to block it, and settle for limited changes.

Writing in yesterday's Daily Telegraph, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, urged: "Clegg's scheme needs to be liquidised, vaporised and generally terminated with extreme prejudice."