Nominations closed last night for the election of the chairs of all the Parliamentary select committees, including the influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Treasury committee, which were disbanded when the general election was first called and are now being re-launched
Four MPs are standing as PAC chair, following on from Margaret Hodge’s tenure of the committee which was frequently in the news for lambasting HMRC, most notably over the department’s failure to act promptly on the leaked list of UK holders of secret offshore HSBC private bank accounts in Switzerland.
Hodge announced her resignation from the position in the last PAC meeting of the previous Parliament.
By convention, chairmanships of the select committees are parcelled out according to the proportion of MPs from each party in Parliament. The PAC committee will continue to be chaired by a Labour MP, with Helen Goodman, David Hanson, Meg Hillier, and Gisela Stuart on the list.
Andrew Tyrie is set to reprise his role as chair of the Treasury committee, which he held in the last Parliament, as his is the only name on the nomination list. Tyrie was widely admired for his forensic examination of senior bankers, HMRC officials and the Chancellor.
ICAEW accountant Ian Wright, Labour MP for Hartlepool, faces two other candidates for the position of chair of the Business, Skills and Innovation select committee. They are Adrian Bailey and Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods.
Votes for all the new select committee chairs will take place next week, on June 17.
