PM's new Parliamentary reforms 'are just a stunt'

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New laws will be formed before the summer in response to public fury at the expenses scandal.

But despite speculation, he did not propose a new voting system using proportional representation, only promising a debate.

Proposals on reforming the House of Lords will be published next month. They are likely to include elections for 80 or 100 per cent of peers.

Other debates will cover cutting the voting age to 16, fixed-term parliaments and a written constitution.

But Tory leader David Cameron derided the statement as a stunt: "The country is too centralised, Parliament is too weak and people feel shut out of decision-making."

He accused Mr Brown of reacting to recent defeats by trying to "fix" elections with a change to voting rules.

Mr Brown's priority was cleaning up the Commons, with legislation to create an external regulator to dictate MPs' salaries and enforce expenses rules. At present an MP can keep his salary and seat even if jailed for up to a year.

"No more should Westminster operate in the ways of the last century where members make the rules themselves," he told the Commons.