There are 30 chairs of the key select committees. Not one is a black or minority ethnic MP. It’s not a good look
Last week, while the media were preoccupied with Downing Street parties, an election took place in parliament in which every sitting MP had a vote. The purpose was to fill the post vacated by Yvette Cooper’s elevation to the shadow cabinet: chair of the home affairs select committee.
It’s a powerful position: the winner can subpoena witnesses, make statements to the house and issue reports and recommendations on some of the biggest issues of the day. All the chairs of parliament’s 30 key committees serve as members of the liaison committee and get to grill the prime minister regularly at close quarters. Follow-up questions are allowed, unlike at prime minister’s questions, where slots are drawn out of a hat with very poor odds. Chairships are divvied up between the big two parties in proportion to how many MPs each has, so this was a guaranteed Labour post.
Rupa Huq is the Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton
