Keir Starmer urged not to abandon pledge to abolish House of Lords

Exclusive: Gordon Brown warns plans to flood upper chamber with dozens of Tory peers proves urgent need for reform

• Gordon Brown: Johnson is planning to fill the Lords with cronies

Keir Starmer has been urged not to abandon a key leadership pledge of abolishing the House of Lords, with Gordon Brown warning that plans to gerrymander" parliament's upper chamber by flooding it with dozens of Tory peers proved the need for drastic reform.

Alarm was raised by the former Labour prime minister over a proposal drawn up by a political lobbying group for Boris Johnson to appoint up to 50 new Conservatives to ram contentious legislation through given a series of embarrassing defeats by peers.