DAVID CAMERON is drawing up proposals to reduce the number of MPs at Westminster by between 60 and 65, amid intense public anger over the abuse of parliamentary expenses.

The Tory leader’s plan, which is expected to be a manifesto pledge, would involve an overhaul of constituency boundaries and require the scrapping of a long-standing rule that constituencies should not cross county borders.

The Conservatives say it would save taxpayers more than £12m a year and could make the electoral system fairer by reducing serious discrepancies in the number of voters for each seat.

If the Tories win the next election, they are expected to legislate for the changes in their first parliament, enabling the Boundary Commission, an independent body, to begin its work to redefine seats.

Cameron said this weekend: “All week I’ve been receiving letters from people saying the same thing: how can MPs claim they’re helping people through the recession when so many of them seem to be feathering their own nests?

“They are right to be angry. We need to sort this out immediately. But restoring trust in politics goes beyond expenses and allowances. At a time when families and businesses are being forced to cut back, politicians should be asking how they can help bring down the cost of politics across the board - it is taxpayers’ money after all.”

The Tories have accused the government of delays over tackling expenses and believe only radical reform of parliament will appease voters. Cameron has asked his party strategists to step up work on proposals to cut the number of MPs.

He labelled the current system - under which constituencies such as the Isle of Wight have tens of thousands more voters than others such as Orkney and Shetland - “neither fair nor efficient”.

“We should start by looking at the way MPs are elected. At the moment, some seats have many more electors than others . . . it means there are more MPs than there need to be,” he said. “I believe every vote should carry the same weight, which means levelling up the size of constituencies. That would help reduce the number of MPs, save money, and give people confidence that their vote really mattered.” Although Cameron would not confirm that the move will become a manifesto pledge, he is committed to the policy. Aides have signalled it will be a first-term priority if the Tories win power.

There are 646 MPs, and boundaries are regularly reviewed and redrawn. The current system gives Labour an inbuilt advantage, meaning the Conservatives need a double-digit swing to win an overall majority.

The Conservatives will hope they can reduce this bias by redrawing the map. However, this will be resisted by Labour, and the electoral analyst Professor Michael Thrasher said: “Most of the bias favouring Labour is nothing to do with boundaries. It is to do with the way Labour’s vote is distributed, and to do with turnout.”

Cameron, who argues that reform of MPs’ expenses needs a deal between the leaders of the three main parties, has pressed for a meeting with Gordon Brown “to settle the issue once and for all”.

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