One of the MPs for Reading has been appointed to assist the new minister who is in charge of the government's policies towards Northern Ireland.

Matt Rodda, the Labour MP for Reading Central has been appointed as the parliamentary private secretary for Hilary Benn, the secretary of state for Northern Ireland.

The secretariat is in charge of human rights and equality, national security, electoral law, devolution and the government's approach to the conflict in Northern Ireland which ended in the Good Friday agreement of 1998.

Mr Rodda said: "I am delighted to have been appointed and I am looking forward to supporting the Northern Ireland secretary as his parliamentary private secretary."

He will serve Mr Benn as an unpaid assistant to develop the government's policy towards Northern Ireland.

Mr Rodda previously served as the shadow minister for artificial intelligence and intellectual property from September last year to the closure of Parliament for the general election.

During the general election, he was elected as the Labour MP for Reading Central with 21,598 votes a majority of  12,637 over second-place challenger councillor Raj Singh (Conservative, Kentwood).

Mr Benn is the son of Tony Benn (1925-2014) who held a range of positions as a minister in the Labour governments of Prime Minister Harold Wilson from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976 and PM James Callaghan from 1976 to 1979.