British Olympic swimming hero and gender-critical campaigner Sharron Davies is set to become a Conservative peer.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch will reportedly appoint the 62-year-old to the House of Lords alongside columnist Simon Heffer and Graham Edwards, the Tory party treasurer and mega-donor.

Ms Davies has become an outspoken advocate for women's rights in sport in recent years, amid concerns that transgender athletes self-identifying is a risk to sporting integrity.

She became involved in the debate after winning silver for Great Britain in the 400m individual medley at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, losing to East Germany's Petra Schneider who later admitted to taking testosterone as part of a state-sponsored doping programme.

After the landmark Supreme Court ruling earlier this year defining a woman as a biological female, Ms Davies wrote in the Daily Mail: 'Women and girls should never have had to fight for their right to play football, run, swim – whatever their choice of sport is – in a fair and safe way.

'Yet it has taken a Supreme Court judgment for public bodies and sporting organisations to wake up to what I and other campaigners have been saying for years. 

'That it is not fair nor right to allow men to compete in women's sport. No one should be allowed to pick which category they wish to compete in.

'I am not saying this because I am anti-trans. I am saying this because I am pro-women and pro-fairness.'

The new peerages are expected to be announced later this year, according to The Times.

Ms Davies will join fellow former athletes Lord Coe, Lord Campbell and Baroness Grey-Thompson.

Ms Davies backed Mrs Badenoch for Tory party leader, describing her as 'a fresh, brave and intelligent woman who's prepared to tackle issues head-on so many have ignored for too long'.