THE woman who lost one of Labour's safest UK seats to Peter Law is in line for a peerage, a leaked Downing Street document says.

But the news has provoked outrage among supporters of rebel MP and AM Mr Law and even from one Gwent Labour MP.

Maggie Jones, the ex-Labour parliamentary candidate, who lost Blaenau Gwent to independent Mr Law in a landslide vote at the general election, is on a list of 28 people from across the political spectrum being tipped to become working peers.

She was selected from a controversial all-women shortlist. Mr Law, who now has a 9,121 majority after winning 20,505 votes to Ms Jones' 11,384, said: "I could see some months ago she would be in the House of Lords by Christmas. That is the way New Labour works. It's a poor example of patronage and power.

"It's like a consolation prize because she didn't win the parliamentary seat."

Former Beaufort councillor Rex Herbert, who was expelled from the Labour Party for signing nomination papers for Mr Law, said he was disgusted at the suggestion of making Ms Jones, a former member of Labour's National Executive Committee and union official with public service union UNISON, a peer.

He said: "There are thousands of people in Blaenau Gwent who rejected her and now they are compensating for the rejection. I was hoping this quarrel could be put aside, but it's yet another move that will put us in the wrong direction to becoming independent."

Newport West MP Paul Flynn is also angry. He said: "This is standing democracy on its head. The House of Lords shouldn't be used to reward a candidate who has been emphatically rejected by the electorate. If there is a case for elevating local people to the peerage it should be given to those MPs who have long served their communities - people like Huw Edwards."