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David Cameron has vowed to tear up taxpayer-funded quangos' contracts with PR firms, as part of a package of reforms to clean up Westminster in the wake of the lobbying row.
The Conservative leader also stepped up pressure for a formal inquiry into claims in a TV documentary that Labour MPs offered to influence Government policy in return for cash.
Complaints have been made to Westminster's Standards Commissioner about ex-ministers Stephen Byers, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon, who have been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party after being secretly filmed in discussions with an undercover reporter posing as the representative of a US lobbying firm.
Ministers sought to distance the Government from the trio, with Justice Secretary Jack Straw saying there was "anger" and "incredulity" among Labour MPs that they had allowed themselves "to be suckered in a sting like this".
Mr Cameron said there was an "incredibly strong" case for an inquiry into Mr Byers' claims - later retracted - that he had influenced decisions by Transport Secretary Lord Adonis and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson.
The ministers have dismissed his claims, but Mr Cameron said their accounts differed from that of Mr Byers.
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"That's why we need a proper inquiry into all this," the Tory leader told reporters. "We do know that the policies referred to did actually change, so we need to see the minutes of meetings, the emails, the telephone logs, those things, to rapidly establish what did actually happen. If it was serious enough to strip these former ministers of the party whip, it is surely serious enough for a brief but comprehensive inquiry."
He said a Tory administration would order an immediate review of the affair, and would double to two years the period for which ex-ministers are banned from lobbying Government and extend to 10 years the period for which they must seek advice on taking up appointments.
Conservatives released official details of more than 50 quangos which use, or have recently used, public money to hire public relations companies and lobbyists.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Nick Hurd said: "Conservatives will adopt US-style rules to ban these practices and we challenge Labour ministers today to serve notice on every lobbying firm and cancel their contracts. It is a scandalous waste of taxpayers' money for Government bodies to be hiring lobbyists to lobby the Government and try to pressure Conservatives from holding the Government to account. No wonder the bureaucratic state has ballooned under Labour, given lobbyists are being bankrolled using public funds to justify yet more state spending and regulation."
