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Speaker’s Statement: Select Committee Chairs

Volume 670: debated on Wednesday 29 January 2020

We now come to the announcement of the results for the election of Select Committee Chairs. The results for Chairs who were unopposed were announced on Monday and the election for the contested votes were held by secret ballot today. Five hundred and eighty-six ballot papers were submitted. The results are as follows:

Committee

Elected

Defence

Mr Tobias Ellwood

Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Julian Knight

Environmental Audit

Philip Dunne

Foreign Affairs

Tom Tugendhat

Health and Social Care

Jeremy Hunt

International Development

Sarah Champion

International Trade

Angus Brendan MacNeil

Justice

Sir Robert Neill

Northern Ireland Affairs

Simon Hoare

Petitions

Catherine McKinnell

Procedure

Karen Bradley

Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs

Mr William Wragg

Science and Technology

Greg Clark

Transport

Huw Merriman

Work and Pensions

Stephen Timms

I congratulate colleagues who have been elected and thank all the candidates for taking part. The full breakdown of voting in each contest is set out in the paper that will be available shortly from the Vote Office and on the website. The Members elected take up their positions formally when the Committee has been nominated by the House.

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Earlier this week at Health questions, my right hon. Friend the Member for Chelsea and Fulham (Greg Hands) raised a question about scaremongering around the Parsons Green walk-in centre. The Parsons Green walk-in centre is not closing and anyone who claims that is not following the facts, but I wanted to come to the House at the earliest moment to apologise, Mr Speaker, to you, to the House, and to the hon. Member for Hammersmith (Andy Slaughter), because I did not follow the parliamentary custom of letting him know in advance that I was going to mention him. I am afraid that I did not know the subject was going to come up, although I should not have been surprised given my right hon. Friend’s assiduousness. I do not apologise for the substance of what I said, nor for the force with which I said it, because I think that this sort of scaremongering worries the most vulnerable, but I do apologise for not letting the hon. Member know in advance.

I hope the Secretary of State will go a little bit further than that. Calling an hon. Member a total disgrace should be retracted.