A MEMBER of the House of Lords has returned to a Weardale school to get a grilling about her life in politics.

Baroness Hilary Armstrong of Hill Top spent an afternoon speaking to 50 students at Wolsingham School and Community College about working in Westminster.

Baroness Armstrong visited the school many times during her 23-year career as North West Durham MP but today’s (January 31) visit was her first since moving to the House of Lords in 2010.

She talked to the students about how Parliament works before being questioned on topics including Afghanistan, youth unemployment, changes to education and the media.

She said: “The House of Lords is a mystery to most people, it is important that young people get the chance to challenge, ask questions and to find out about this part of their democracy.”

One student asked Baroness Armstrong for her advice on how to get in to politics, to which the former Chief Whip for the Labour party replied: “You have got to live a life first.

“Having taught in Africa and worked I came back to politics with much more knowledge about what I could do and wanted to do in Government.”

Lianne Emanuel, head of humanities at the school, said: “This was a fantastic opportunity for our students to interact with someone who knows the parliamentary system inside out, as it can sometimes seem far removed from their daily lives.”

The visit was arranged through the Lord Speaker’s Peers in Schools programme, which has been running across the UK since 2007 and has so far involved around 50,000 young people.