Theresa May has been accused of delaying action to shrink the House of Lords, after she said she would like to see a smaller second chamber – but will announce a tranche of new peers shortly.
Labour said the prime minister had "ducked giving a proper response" to a major report from former civil servant Lord Burns, published last year, which called for the Lords to be reduced from its current 792 members to 600 over the next decade.
On Tuesday, May vowed to exercise "continued restraint" over new appointments and called on all parties to encourage peers to retire. Yet she also said she would announce a "small list of new party-political peers" in due course.
A Labour party spokesperson said: "With this Conservative government everything seems to be put off to some uncertain time in the future – Lords reform included.
"As well as ending the hereditary principle for good, we ultimately want to see an elected second chamber but Theresa May has ducked giving a proper response."
In a letter to Lords Speaker Lord Fowler, May said she accepted the main principle of the report, which recommended that the upper chamber be reduced in size.
But she said specific proposals to reduce the total number of peers to 600, and to limit the period peers can serve to 15 years, required "further consideration".
Since May became PM in July 2016, she has appointed eight new peers: three ministers and five cross-benchers. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has appointed just one peer, former Liberty director Baroness Chakrabarti.
Number 10 pointed out that there had been a net fall of 20 peers since May came to power.
May said: "I intend to continue with the restraint which I have exercised to date and, when making appointments, to allocate them fairly, bearing in mind the results of the last general election and the leadership shown by each party in terms of retirements.
"I will also operate on the basis that there is no automatic entitlement to a peerage for any holder of high office in public life."
At the moment senior police officers and judges often become peers by "convention", Number 10 said.
"I believe that a combination of restraint on appointments and an increased, cross-party take-up of retirement would represent the most effective action which could be taken immediately to address the real concerns about the size of the House," the PM said.
But the Electoral Reform Society is not convinced. Its chief executive, Darren Hughes, said: “While we welcome her stated intention to reduce the size of the House of Lords, in reality she is merely paying lip service to the issue.
“Calling on parties to encourage their peers to resign is not enough – in fact it misses the point.
“The most effective way to shrink the second chamber is to move to a slimmed-down, fairly elected chamber. Voters are tired of unaccountable lords making laws on their behalf."
Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake said: "Theresa May had an opportunity to exert her authority and put some of the inactive peers to the sword, and reduce the size of the Lords. Instead, she has shied away from battle, and allowed the situation to fester – no doubt while she plans her next appointments to the upper House.”