SE Cambs MP Lucy Frazer has taken her first tentative steps on the Westminster career path with her appointment today as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice.

Ms Frazer, a barrister, was first elected in 2015 following a controversial selection two years earlier as Parliamentary candidate that had to be re-run after a voting mix-up.

She was the surprise winner ahead of the widely tipped Heidi Allen who later became Tory candidate and then MP for South Cambs.

Ms Frazer inherited a safe Conservative seat and although her majority was cut by around 700 votes at the last election her share of the vote went up. She still has, though, what might be a termed a healthy 16,158 majority.

“She is a lawyer who made QC by 40 so Justice seems like the appropriate department for her, “said a tribute posted by one supportive newspaper today.

Her Parliamentary career has not been without incident for the former deputy chairman of the Hampstead and Kilburn Conservatives.

She reminded MPs during her maiden speech that it was Cromwell “who defeated the Scots at Dunbar, incorporated Scotland into his protectorate and transported the Scots as slaves to the colonies.

“Now, there is an answer to the West Lothian question—but not one, of course that I would recommend.”

Some 5,000 people signed an ‘open letter’ begun by Martin Keatings, a political activist from Scotland, in which he accused the MP of making “offensive and pejorative statements about a member constituent country of the UK”.

And a line petition urged the Speaker of the House of Commons to “immediately direct Lucy Frazer and the other MPs present who were laughing to make a full and public apology in the commons to the people of Scotland”.

Ms Frazer later apologised and was “extremely sorry for any offence I have caused. That was not my intention. I have the highest regard for Scotland and the Scottish people”.

Last year the memories of that speech were resurrected when a man who threatened to “cut” Ms Frazer in an abusive voicemail has been jailed for six months.

Zackary Welsh, 23, left the message for the MP following the comments she had made about Scotland.

The sheriff who sentenced Welsh told him that “particular difficulties are faced by women MPs, who are often subjected to misogynistic, sick and perverted abuse.

“This is an attempt by those without their talent or sense of public duty to demean and control them and ultimately exclude them from public service. The threats and abuse you indulged in would clearly be intensely distressing to your target, her staff, and her family.”