RETIRED MP Derek Foster was made a peer last week, then admitted he once voted to scrap the House of Lords altogether.

The former Bishop Auckland MP, who stood down at the election after 26 years, was among 16 Labour peers created by Tony Blair to make Labour the largest group in the Lords for the first time.

A delighted Mr Foster immediately pledged to keep fighting to close the North-South divide.

But he said it would feel strange to don the famous ermine, not least because he voted to abolish the upper chamber at the 1975 Labour conference.

He said: "My father would not have believed it, as a staunch trade unionist, and neither would my mother, because she would not have thought her son could achieve it. But I am very keen to get stuck into what I have been involved in for 30 years - the economic development of the North-East.

"It would be great to see the North-East's gross domestic product per head creeping up, that is the real test of whether we are making much difference.

"I will have more time to devote to it now. And, as you get more mature, you are far more use than when you are young, inexperienced and wet behind the ears."

Mr Foster will join former South Shields MP David Clark, former Jarrow MP Don Dixon and former Cabinet minister Jack Cunningham in the Lords.

Mr Foster will be meeing the Lords authorities this week to discuss his title - Lord Foster of Bishop Auckland is thought to be the favourite - before taking his seat next month.