The public would support higher pay for peers if the House of Lords had better spin doctors, a millionaire Conservative peer has claimed.

Lord Farmer, a former Tory treasurer who has given the party more than £7 million, was branded “out of touch” after suggesting that the £300 a day allowance claimed by some peers was “rather modest and even inadequate”.

In a debate on improving the official House of Lords press office, the founder of the RK Capital Management hedge fund said that better understanding of the work of the upper house could lead to “public support for higher daily allowances”.

Suggesting that the allowance compared favourably with the daily rate for a plumber or mechanic, he said that he does not claim it