Martha Lane Fox in line for Digital Inclusion Champion role

Martha Lane Fox looks set to be the new Digital Inclusion Champion

Lastminute.com co-founder Martha Lane Fox is to become the UK's Digital Inclusion Champion, and will take on the responsibility of moving the last third of Britons online.

A spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said that the government will make an official announcement about the appointment once it has named the next digital inclusion minister.

Fox accepted the position on Monday in a meeting in London with senior civil servants, and representatives from the UK Digital Task Force and Help The Aged.

Paul Murphy, the former minister for digital inclusion who proposed the role of Champion in his Digital Inclusion Action Plan in October, would have unveiled the appointment, but his involvement in the expenses scandal led to his subsequent disentitlement.

Fox said on Twitter on Tuesday morning: "Just been 2 see an inspirational uk online centre based in www.openage.co.uk - Helen who runs it should be knighted! "

Journalists had been invited to attend the meeting, but were then told that the appointment was to remain anonymous until Murphy's position had been filled.

The Digital Inclusion Champion will be tasked with driving digital inclusion issues into the public eye, facilitating government conversation and promoting cross-sector engagement.

The Champion will need to maintain a strategic oversight of issues from the point of view of excluded citizens, and work with all sections of society to identify evidence of emerging issues, according to Murphy.

Fox and Lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman built the leading travel and leisure web site in the 1990s. Fox set up Lucky Voice in 2005, and is a non-executive director of Marks & Spencer. She is also an advisor on the Education and Innovation Committee, and set up the Antigone Foundation that supports people in the criminal justice system.

Fox's press team at Antigone would not confirm or deny the leaks on her new appointment.