Keir Starmer to make Iceland boss Richard Walker a Labour peer

Appointment marks a rapid political transformation for a former Tory donor and potential candidate for MP

The formerly Conservative-supporting boss of the supermarket Iceland is to be made a Labour peer when the party appoints another 25 representatives to parliament's upper house later this month.

Keir Starmer will appoint Richard Walker to the House of Lords, the Guardian understands, the culmination of an unusual and rapid political transformation for someone named as a prospective Tory MP candidate a little over three years ago.