Sam FrancisPolitical reporter
Olympic medal-winning swimmer and campaigner Sharron Davies has been named as one of three new Conservative peers.
Ms Davies, a vocal critic of trans women in women’s sport, was nominated by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.
The Tories said it was in recognition of her sporting achievements and her campaigning on women’s rights.
Iceland supermarket chairman Richard Walker and former Number 10 communications director Matthew Doyle are among 25 new Labour peers nominated by Sir Keir Starmer. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey nominated five new peers.
Ms Davies will sit alongside ex-Tory cabinet minister John Redwood and journalist and historian Simon Heffer – who have also been handed peerages.
She has become an outspoken campaigner against allowing transgender athletes in female competitions in order to “protect women’s sport”.
The swimmer, who won a silver medal at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and two Commonwealth golds, denied that her comments were transphobic and claimed she had spoken to many other female athletes who “feel the same way as me”.
Following her nomination, Ms Davies said it would be “exciting to carry on fighting for women’s rights and safeguarding as well as trying to get as many kids, in particular, doing sport as possible”.
Meanwhile, a Labour spokesperson said their new 25 peers would allow the government to “deliver on our mandate from the British people” and “correct” the imbalance against Labour in the House of Lords, where the Tories currently have more representation.
Despite having a majority in the House of Commons, Labour is currently outnumbered in
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