Ex-Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies and Iceland boss Richard Walker among new peers

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.

A Labour spokesperson said the new titles 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 the Lords, with 209 peers to the Tories’ 282.

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”.

Mr Walker’s nomination confirms reports earlier in the week from Labour sources calling him “a committed champion of families dealing with the cost of living”.

The 45-year-old left the Conservative Party in 2023, and was later seen at the launch of Labour’s manifesto for the 2024 general election.

In February this year, he gave the new government a score of “six out of 10” in comments to the Financial Times, taking issue with it raising employer national insurance contributions but praising its attempts to improve relations with the EU.

A Labour spokesperson said: “⁠The Tories stuffed the House of Lords, creating a serious imbalance that has allowed them to frustrate our plans to make working families better off.

“We will continue to progress our programme of reform, which includes removing the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the Lords.”