STEPHEN Doughty MP has announced that he will be joining the Labour frontbench under Sir Kier Starmer's leadership at Westminster.

The MP for Cardiff South and Penarth will work alongside the Shadow Foreign Secretary, Lisa Nandy, as a joint Shadow Foreign Office and International Development Minister for the African continent.

He was previously appointed as Shadow Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs until he resigned from the position in 2016.

During his live daily Q and A session yesterday, Mr Doughty said: "I got a call from the Sir Kier Starmer yesterday letting me know he'd like me to be a Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development.

"I'll be working in two different teams with Lisa Nandy and Preet Kaur Gill - both fantastic people and I'm delighted to be working with them.

"And the full front bench team was announced today so it will be a delight to go back and be in a shadow ministerial role.

"It's something that I feel I've got a lot to contribute on but also is going to be so crucial because we're seeing the impacts that coronavirus is having in this country with a developed health system; with relatively strong levels of support for people, though I appreciate at the moment its incredibly difficult for people; but compared to some countries around the world who literally don't have any of the type of equipment or expertise or staffing that we do in our health service.

"I'm really fearful of some of the impact that will have in some of the poorest countries around the world, so this is undoubtedly going to be a big issue over the next few months and I'm going to be working very closely with Kier's team to make sure we get the right support from governments across the world working together because we're not going to solve this crisis by putting up barriers."

Sir Keir won the Labour leadership contest in the first round of voting at a ballot last week, where he competed against Lisa Nandy and Rebecca Long-Baily.

Mr Doughty has previously expressed his support for Sir Keir and called his victory a 'ray of hope.'