Devon’s newest member of the House of Lords says he ’never in a month of Sundays’ thought he would enter Parliament.

The Bishop of Exeter, the Right Reverend Robert Atwell, pictured right giving his maiden speech in the Lords, has become one of the Lords Spiritual - the group of 26 Church of England bishops who, as well as having the same rights as other members, read prayers at the start of each day’s business.

Bishop Robert, who has led the Church of England in Devon since 2014, said being a ’voice for our wonderful county’ at Westminster would be a ’great privilege’ despite not being something he ever expected. ’I was born and brought up in Essex on the edge of east London and went to comprehensive school. If you’d asked me when I was doing my GCSEs that you’ll end up [in the Lords] I would have laughed in your face. Never in a month of Sundays.

Bishop Robert said that climate change will be one of his priorities, and he encouraged the Government to make the most of its presidency of the COP26 climate summit which lasts until next year’s COP27. ’People think "well it’s all over now, Glasgow’s all over" but no - it’s only just begun. He added that it was important that ’our own nation should be walking the talk ourselves and in the end that comes of course down to every single one of us’.

He said it would also be a privilege ’to speak particularly for rural communities and coastal communities who are often undervalued and unnoticed by national government, and if I contribute to their well-being in any way, it will be a great privilege and a joy for me’.