A Conservative-voting white male comedian has been appointed to the BBC’s diversity and inclusion group, which has the task of ensuring the broadcaster is representative of modern Britain.

Geoff Norcott, who has appeared on the BBC comedy shows Live at the Apollo and The Mash Report, will be responsible for holding the corporation to account if it fails to represent certain communities in its output.

The former teacher, who grew up in south London, has risen to prominence in recent years by billing himself as “the UK’s only declared Conservative comedian” and carving out a niche as a rare pro-Brexit voice on the panel show circuit.

Norcott, 42, is one of the five external members of the watchdog, which is responsible for monitoring how the BBC “portrays all of the UK’s communities on air, and represents them in its workforce”.

He will be invited to be involved in the BBC’s future work on diversity matters and to challenge contentious issues. The comedian emphasised that he had been appointed because of concerns about the underrepresentation of working-class people in the media, rather than his politics.

“The reason I have been asked to talk there – class – has been broadly overlooked, which kind of underlines the reason that conversation needs to happen,” he said. “Though Token Tory would be a funny name for a show.”

The other members of the group are Adele Patrick, the cofounder of the Glasgow Women’s Library; the broadcaster June Sarpong; Solomon Elliott of the school news website The Student View; and the former TV executive Tanya Motie.

The committee, which will meet for the first time on Wednesday, is a refreshed version of the independent diversity advisory group, which was founded in 2014 and included the actor Sir Lenny Henry and the radio presenter Nihal Arthanayake. The new group will be overseen by the BBC non-executive directors Tom Ilube and Tanni Grey-Thompson.

The BBC director general, Tony Hall, said the corporation needed to represent “the widest range of stories, faces and voices on screen, on air and behind the camera”, and said the group would help achieve this.

“The combined knowledge, experience and skills of our new diversity and inclusion advisory group will provide a fresh perspective on our ambitions,” he said.

The announcement follows the recent departure of the BBC’s dedicated head of diversity, Tunde Ogungbesan. His role is to be split into two new jobs: director of creative diversity and head of workforce diversity and inclusion.

More than 15% of the BBC’s workforce are from a BME background – more than the wider UK population – and the corporation says it is set to meet its targets for ensuring staff reflect disabled and LGBT people by the end of this year.

However, it accepts more needs to be done to increase representation of BME people and women in senior leadership roles.