A former Stevenage schoolboy has taken his place on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords after being confirmed as Baron Kempsell of Letchworth.

Ross Kempsell, 31, was included in Boris Johnson's controversial resignation honours list and is currently a spokesperson for the former prime minister.

Lord Kempsell attended the John Henry Newman School in Stevenage before graduating with a double first from Christ's College at the University of Cambridge.

He then went into journalism, working for the Comet and the right-wing political website Guido Fawkes before becoming political editor at Talk Radio in 2018.

During his time there, he conducted a viral interview with Mr Johnson in which the then-prime minister claimed that he relaxed by making models of buses.

Lord Kempsell then became a special adviser to Mr Johnson's government in 2019, before becoming a special correspondent for Times Radio in 2020.

After that role, he became political director at Conservative campaign headquarters, before becoming Mr Johnson's spokesperson after he stepped down from his role as prime minister last year.

Lord Kempsell will remain a member of the House of Lords for life, and is entitled to collect a £332 allowance for every day he attends the Palace of Westminster.

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He is one of the youngest people ever to become a life peer. Another of Boris Johnson's nominations, 30-year-old Charlotte Owen, became the youngest ever when confirmed as Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge this week.

Boris Johnson's honours list has proved controversial, with criticism around the number of new peers and their often partisan nature.

A cross-party committee with senior peers from each major party, noted that Mr Johnson's appointments were "granted predominantly to members of his own party", and that the number of them "far exceeded" their benchmarks.

Their report said that Mr Johnson's list "brought the appointments system into question", with more than half of the former prime minister's initial nominees being rejected by the House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC).

It is believed that Nadine Dorries, the Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire, is among those to have been nominated by Mr Johnson but not approved by HOLAC.

Lord Kempsell's life peerage is the second in two years with a Stevenage connection, after Labour's Baroness Taylor joined the House of Lords last year.