Sharron Davies to stand trial over M4 speeding ticket

Olympian Baroness Sharron Davies will stand trial over a motorway speeding ticket and is insisting she is not to blame.

The former athlete, who recently became Baroness Davies of Devonport in the House of Lords, was caught on a speed camera on the M4 while driving back from a speaking event in Wales.

Court papers show that Baroness Davies was driving her Mini at 65mph when the speed limit had been temporarily dropped to 50mph.

But she has vowed to fight the charge, saying that she was “shocked” to receive the speeding ticket.

“I am adamant that the signage was so poor it was easy to miss, which is what must have happened,” she wrote in a statement accompanying her not guilty plea.

Baroness Davies’ car triggered a speed camera near junction 19 in South Gloucestershire just after 11.30pm on 15 October 2025.

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She wrote that she is “always extremely careful” with her speed and was using her cruise control and the app Waze to get home.

“I absolutely did not see clear signage to show the limit had gone down to 50mph from 70mph on the motorway,” she wrote.

“I was doing 67mph, very much still inside the 70mph I thought it was.

“There was still three lanes of very, very light traffic and most importantly no work men.

“I don’t know if this is about the time that road works start at night on motorways and if this was a factor in signage or confusion?

“However I most definitely would have dropped my speed if I had been aware of the reduction.”

Baroness Davies said she had never contested a speeding fine in 45 years of driving.

“I’d driven home changing my cruise control as speed limits changed,” she wrote.

“I pride myself on being a good driver, but also a safe one.”

Baroness Davies, an Olympic silver medallist, was nominated for a life peerage by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch at the end of 2025.

She enjoyed a professional swimming career spanning three decades, winning two Commonwealth Games gold medals and breaking more than 200 British records in the pool before she retired in 1994.

Baroness Davies went on to become a successful TV pundit, and is also the director of the campaign group the Women’s Sports Union.

She is due to stand trial over the speeding charge at Bath Magistrates’ Court on 11 August.