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Frank Field elected Work and Pensions Committee chairman | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Former Labour welfare reform minister Frank Field has been elected as the new Work and Pensions Committee chairman. | |
He has been a vocal critic of the department's flagship Universal Credit scheme designed to streamline benefits. | |
The Defence Committee will be chaired by Tory Julian Lewis, an advocate of meeting the 2% defence spend target. | |
Labour's Meg Hillier is to chair the influential Public Accounts Committee, parliament's public spending watchdog, of which she used to be a member. | |
The elections for the select committee chairs were conducted via secret ballot of MPs. | |
Speaker John Bercow announced the results in the House of Commons during Thursday's business, informing MPs that 621 members took part. | |
Twelve of the 27 committee chairmen had already been elected unopposed. | Twelve of the 27 committee chairmen had already been elected unopposed. |
The roles have been divided up between the political parties based on the results of the general election. | The roles have been divided up between the political parties based on the results of the general election. |
The results | |
Labour MP Ian Mearns will take over the Backbench Business Committee, which allocates non-government time in the Commons for MPs to debate their chosen subjects. | |
This was previously headed by Labour's Natascha Engel who is now a deputy Commons Speaker. | |
Meanwhile, Keith Vaz stays on at the Home Affairs Committee despite a challenge from Fiona Mactaggart, as does Conservative Sarah Wollaston at health. | |
The elections are conducted using an "alternative vote" system, under which MPs rank their favourites in order of preference, with the first to get more than 50% of votes going through. | |
Some, like Public Accounts and Backbench Business, are reserved for the Opposition, but the rest are parcelled out in proportion to the parties' strength. | |
With the Conservatives now running a majority government, they take on the chairmanship of the Justice Committee, previously held by Lib Dem veteran Sir Alan Beith. | With the Conservatives now running a majority government, they take on the chairmanship of the Justice Committee, previously held by Lib Dem veteran Sir Alan Beith. |
Meanwhile, the SNP - which is now the third largest party in the Commons - has been handed the Scottish Affairs and Energy and Climate Change. | Meanwhile, the SNP - which is now the third largest party in the Commons - has been handed the Scottish Affairs and Energy and Climate Change. |
Committee chairmen receive extra pay on top of their MP's salaries for doing the job. | Committee chairmen receive extra pay on top of their MP's salaries for doing the job. |
Here is the list of the committee chairmen who were re-elected unopposed: |