Former Labour MP Frank Field set to become a peer after Jeremy Corbyn's three candidates blocked

Veteran ex-Labour MP Frank Field is being lined up for a seat in the House of Lords after Jeremy Corbyn's three candidates were blocked by the Lords watchdog.

Mr Field, who quit the Labour Party in 2018 over anti-Semitism and left Parliament at last December's general election, is set to take a seat in the Lords when a longlist of new peers is finally unveiled.

The news will be an embarrassment for ex-Labour leader Mr Corbyn, who has seen his three candidates – Tom Watson, John Bercow and Carrie Murphy – blocked by the House of Lords Appointments Commission.

The announcement of dozens of new mainly Conservative peers has been delayed by the election, the Brexit crisis and now the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Field sat as an MP in the House of Commons from 1979 to 2019, winning widespread support across the House for his championing of the rights of the poor and welfare reform.

Sources have told The Telegraph that his name is on a list of new peers. He is expected to sit as a crossbench peer and was nominated six months ago before he fought and lost his Birkenhead seat as an independent candidate in December's election.

Mr Field, who has been advertising for a researcher to assist with his work on modern slavery and social mobility, declined to comment when approached by The Telegraph.

Former Cabinet ministers Sir David Lidington, Ken Clarke, Philip Hammond and Sir Patrick McLoughlin are understood to be among 10 new Tory peers to be created.

Nicky Morgan, now Baroness Morgan of Cotes, and Zac Goldsmith, now Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park – who both lost their seats in December – have already been made members of the Lords.

Others in the running for peerages include Tory donor and leading businessmen Johnny Leavesley, the chairman of the Tory donor group the Midlands Industrial Council, and Peter Cruddas, a former Tory party treasurer.

The House of Lords Appointments Commission said it did not comment on the vetting process for any new peers.