Labour has appointed a former Stonewall board member to head a powerful new regulator with sweeping powers over British businesses on a salary of up to £162,000 a year. Lisa Pinney will become chief executive of the Fair Work Agency in April, overseeing the enforcement of employment rights with powers to investigate and fine employers.

Critics hit out at the appointment, with Shadow Business and Trade Secretary Andrew Griffith saying "the last thing business needs is a Left-wing, trans activist heading up a new anti-jobs regulator" when unemployment was already on the rise. He urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to "pull politics out of the boardroom and U-turn on this appointment today".

The role was advertised online as having a salary between £100,000 to £162,000. From 2012-18, Ms Pinney sat on the board of the campaign group Stonewall, during which time it issued advice to schools on how to approach transgender children.

Sex Matters, a women's rights organisation, criticised the advice at the time, saying it meant "that a boy who thinks he is a girl is told by teachers that he really is a girl".

In 2018, while working at the Environment Agency, Ms Pinney published an article praising Stonewall and signed up the agency to the group's controversial Diversity Champions programme.

She went on to work as chief executive for the Coal Authority, which released a gender pay gap report criticising government regulations for only recognising two genders.

The report stated: "Government regulations for reporting the gender pay gap require us to classify colleagues as either male or female. We recognise that this approach doesn't reflect the full diversity of gender identities within our workforce."

Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns for sex-based rights charity Sex Matters, which campaigns for clarity about biological sex in law and life said: "It is concerning that the chief executive of the Fair Work Agency has a history of trans rights activism. Her job is to enforce the Employment Rights Bill, not to push an LGBT+ agenda.

"She has previously said that 'trans people and their fundamental rights' were under attack, but it's women who have had to bring legal action to win back basic privacy and decency in the workplace.

"No woman should have to go to court to get men who claim to be women out of women's toilets and changing rooms at work.

"Will this fair work tsar stand up for women's rights at work? Let's hope she parks her previous demands for 'LGBT+ equality' and focuses on the law, which protects everyone's rights."

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Ms Pinney was made an MBE in 2014 for services to diversity, but later criticised the honours system in a piece for a national newspaper, citing its links to the British Empire. She did not hand her own honour back.

Former Treasury minister Alan Mak said: "The Government should stop appointing woke activists and start bringing in leaders with real business experience and a track record of generating economic growth rather than campaigning for more red tape on employers and wealth creators."

The Fair Work Agency intends to bring together the functions of several enforcement bodies to act as a centralised regulator with sweeping new powers under the Employment Rights Act.

A Government spokesperson said: "Lisa Pinney was appointed following a fair and open recruitment process and brings a wealth of experience. The new Fair Work Agency will end the fragmented system of employment rights enforcement, support workers, and simplify compliance for businesses."