'I thought I was settling into cosy retirement'

The former MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, Steve McCabe, was just settling into what he described as a "cosy retirement" when he found out he was going to be made a peer.

He was named as one of 30 new Labour peers earlier this month, meaning he will now join the House of Lords.

McCabe announced he was standing down as an MP in May, after serving the constituencies of Hall Green and Selly Oak in Birmingham for 27 years.

He told the BBC: "I'd had actually quite a full lazy summer since my retirement so my original thought was: 'My God, I better start getting myself organised!'"

"Obviously I had been asked if I would be interested but it's one of these things that you can never be sure what's going to happen in politics."

McCabe said he wanted to continue to work on issues that he had experience with as a constituency MP.

"I'm very keen on the work of [the charity] Heart Valve Voice, which looks at the number of people who need heart valve treatment and who would survive and do better with early diagnosis," he said.

"I'm interested in access to IVF, which is extremely unequal across the country for what should be a national health provision.

"I've had a long association with the hospices in my Selly Oak constituency and I think the things that they do are as important as ever."

He said he expected to be introduced to the Lords in either January or February.

"I thought I was just settling into cosy retirement but I'll have to try and get myself a bit of exercise and get back into the swing of things," McCabe said.

Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.