Boris Johnson has appointed the QC David Wolfson as a life peer and junior justice minister.

One of the leading commercial barristers in the country, he will leave One Essex Court chambers to take up a place in the House of Lords as a Baron.

The Liverpool-born lawyer was educated at the city’s King David High School, the Western Wall yeshiva, and Selwyn College Cambridge. He is a former chair of the JC Trust, the body that oversaw the newspaper before it was liquidated and bought out by a consortium in April.

He was made a QC in 2009 and more recently has backed the prime minister’s stance over controversial legislation on Brexit.

Leading colleagues in the legal profession congratulated Mr Wolfson on his move to the Lords.

“Congratulations to a real legal heavyweight, and a lovely man,” wrote Dinah Rose QC on Twitter.

The barrister Steven Barrett said Mr Wolfson “is a titan of the Bar and one of our finest legal minds. It should come as great comfort to everyone that someone so able is willing to serve his country.”