Newly-elected MP Heidi Alexander has been given an instant promotion by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Ms Alexander was on Monday appointed minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, having unseated Sir Robert Buckland in Swindon South at last week's general election.

She will be working for the secretary of state and Lord Chancellor Shaban Mahmood and alongside prisons minister James Timpson. The latter is the boss of the well-known heel-bar and key-cutting kiosks and will be made a life peer so he can serve in the House of Lords.

Ms Alexander tweeted: “It’s a huge honour - and a massive responsibility - to have been asked to serve by Keir Starmer as a member of his new government.

“I look forward to getting straight to work with Shabana Mahmood and James Timpson.”

 

On Thursday, Ms Alexander took the Swindon South seat which had been held, under slightly different boundaries and the name South Swindon, since 2010 by Conservative Sir Robert.

A barrister, Sir Robert had been minister of state for prisons and probation in the Ministry of Justice for a few months in 2019 before being promoted by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson to the top job as Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary in July of that year.

He held the post for more than two years until he was fired by Mr Johnson in September 2021.