Baroness Wilcox on House of Lords frontbench after Newport role

She has been appointed to the Whips Office and is part of the frontbench group working alongside Lord Kennedy on local government affairs.

Lady Wilcox, who served as Newport's council leader from 2016-19, said she was "delighted" to have been appointed to the new role "after a relatively short time in the the House".

She was given a peerage in former prime minister Theresa May's resignation honours last year. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn had recommended her for a peerage for her services to local government.

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Looking forward to her new role, Lady Wilcox said: "It will be great to be part of a team again as I learn about the various strands of the job."

She added: "I hope to be putting the concerns and issues of Newport and the wider Welsh local government family to the forefront of debates and questions to ministers in the Lords, as I did last week when I pressed the Minister on giving assurances of funding to help Welsh councils after the dreadful flooding of the past few weeks.”

Since taking up the role of a working peer in January, Lady Wilcox has made her maiden speech to the House of Lords, and taken part in several debates including one to press the UK government for access to early-years education in England, which she said was not receiving the same amount of support as in Wales.