The results are now in for all of the Commons select committee chair positions, and what is clear is that attempts by newly elected MPs to win a position, and thus begin forging a name for themselves, have not been successful. Only Patricia Ferguson, just elected as the Scottish Affairs committee Chair, is from the 2024 intake.
With the exception of Ferguson (who is a former MSP and Scottish Government minister) every new chairperson has previously held either government, shadow cabinet or select committee positions in previous parliamentary terms. MPs were not willing to put their faith in colleagues who would be more focused on getting to grips with the geography of the parliamentary estate, than with the issues the committees must work hard to address.
Business and Trade Chair Liam Byrne – who held no fewer than nine ministerial roles in the last Labour government – will no doubt have an inquiry agenda already worked out; which companies and organisations will fear and welcome in equal measure. Byrne held the role of B&T Chair for six months at the end of the last parliament and will feel he has unfinished business. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who will head up the Public Accounts committee, has served as a Conservative MP for longer than some of Labour’s new intake have been alive. Emily Thornberry – despite the results of her election being much closer than she would have liked – is expected to bring the same level of passion and forensic analysis to the Foreign Affairs committee as she has done to the many senior roles she previously held.
With the exception of Melanie Onn (previously a Labour MP 2015-2019) who was just 50 votes short of becoming ESNEZ Chair, every new Labour MP who ran lost by significant margins. Once Party conference season has passed, the next step for the committees will be to fill the rest of the membership positions – another stage of the process which will be highly competitive given the ratio of back bench Labour MPs to committee roles available.
The double-edged sword for Labour winning such a mammoth parliamentary majority is the dozens of their newly elected back bench MPs impatiently waiting to hit the ground running. This group will have to channel their energy somewhere, and whether that’s within committees, APPGs or single-issue campaigns, they will certainly keep the whips on their toes.
