A political and equalities activist has become the first black man to be elected head of an Oxbridge college.

Lord Simon Woolley, founding director of campaign group Operation Black Vote, will be the next principal of Cambridge University’s Homerton College.

The former Equality and Human Rights Commissioner said it was a “must-have role”.

He grew up on a Leicester council estate and left school without any A-levels.

The cross-party peer, who was fostered and adopted as a child, later returned to education and gained a degree and a masters.

He is the third black person to be elected as head of a college at Oxford or Cambridge. More