A Labour peer who led a parliamentary inquiry into the 2008 financial crisis has been named the new speaker of the House of Lords.
Lord McFall of Alcluith was elected by his peers.
He will replace Lord Fowler, the Conservative peer and former health secretary, at the start of next month.
Lord McFall said the Lords faced some “fundamental challenges”, the most immediate of which was how to return to Westminster in greater numbers once the current lockdown restrictions are relaxed.
He added: “The valuable and often unheralded work of the House of Lords and its members contributes to improving the lives of millions of people, but I know we need to do more to tell our story and to explain the value that we bring.
“As Lord Speaker, I stand ready to play my part in meeting the challenges that lie ahead. I want the Lords to be a vibrant, outward-facing legislature that reaches out as widely as possible across all parts of the United Kingdom.”
Lord Fowler, the current Lord Speaker, has said he wants to focus more time on his campaigning work, including on Aids.
The Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle paid tribute to Lord Fowler in the House of Commons.
He told MPs: “My best wishes to Lord Fowler - I wish Norman well in the next stage of his illustrious career.”
A former MP, Lord McFall joined the House of Lords in 2010 and has served as senior deputy speaker of the Lords since 2016.
During that time he oversaw work to restructure select committees in the Lords and to develop new procedures for hybrid working during the Covid-19 pandemic.
As chairman of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee he conducted a series of inquiries into the 2008 banking crisis.
When he stood down as an MP in 2010 then prime minister Gordon Brown described him as “an authoritative voice that emboldened and reassured both Parliament and the British people on how to steer through the recession”.
