FORMER Liverpool council leader Mike Storey will be handed a peerage today, in a controversial expansion of the House of Lords.

The head teacher will be among around 15 Liberal Democrat names on a bumper list of new peers, designed to help the Coalition push new laws through the upper chamber.

The appointment comes five years after Mr Storey was forced to step down as city council leader, a position which he used to drive the regeneration of the city centre and help create Liverpool One.

The man who served as lord mayor in 2008 will use his long experience in education to closely scrutinise the Government’s controversial schools' shake-up – which includes privately-sponsored “free schools”.

Another area of interest is likely to be the continued regeneration of the city-region, which critics have argued is under threat from massive public spending cuts.

Mr Storey will help form a powerful Liverpool Lib-Dem line-up in the Lords, alongside former party chief executive Chris Rennard and ex-Mossley Hill MP David Alton.

But the list is certain to spark a major row, with accusations that David Cameron and Nick Clegg are packing the Lords with allies – while slashing the number of elected MPs.

More than 50 new peers are expected to be created – 27 Tory, 15 Lib-Dem and 10 Labour – in a House of Lords already boasting more than 700 members.