Tyrie beats Fallon in Treasury committee upset

Thursday, 10 June 2010 11:40 AM

By Alex Stevenson

Andrew Tyrie has beaten Michael Fallon in the race to be chair of the Commons' Treasury committee, in the biggest upset of the select committee elections.

Speaker John Bercow announced the unexpected result alongside those of the other 22 committees, following a number of hotly-contested campaigns for the roles.

Mr Fallon had long been expected to take over from outgoing Labour MP John McFall in the important role and - had the elections not taken place - would almost certainly have been appointed by whips, who previously held responsibility for approving select committee chairs.

Now Mr Tyrie - who won the Spectator backbencher of the year award last year - has triumphed instead following the first elections to the roles.

Other major results included Margaret Hodge's election to the public accounts committee, parliament's spending watchdog, and Bernard Jenkin as chair of the public administration select committee.

Adrian Bailey beat Geraint Davies and Barry Sheerman in the race to be chair of the business, innovation and skills committee, while Richard Ottaway won the foreign affairs chair post.

Labour's Keith Vaz at the home affairs committee and the Conservatives' James Arbuthnot at the defence committee held on to the roles they had held in the previous parliament.

The newly-founded political and constitutional reform committee saw Graham Allen elected as chair. Graham Stuart won the children's, schools and families committee chair.

Elected following opposed vote

Business, innovation and skills committee - Adrian Bailey (Lab)
Children, schools and families - Graham Stuart (Con)
Communities and local government committee - Clive Betts (Lab)
Defence committee - James Arbuthnot (Con)
Energy and climate change committee - Tim Yeo (Con)
Environment, food and rural affairs committee - Anne McIntosh (Con)
Environmental audit committee - Joan Walley (Lab)
Foreign affairs committee - Richard Ottaway (Con)
Health committee - Stephen Dorrell (Con)
Home affairs committee - Keith Vaz (Lab)
Political and constitutional reform committee - Graham Allen (Lab)
Public accounts committee - Margaret Hodge (Lab)
Public administration select committee - Bernard Jenkin (Con)
Science and technology committee - Andrew Miller (Lab)
Treasury committee - Andrew Tyrie (Con)
Work and pensions committee - Anne Begg (Lab)

Elected unopposed

Culture, media and sport committee: James Whittingdale (Con)
International development committee: Malcolm Bruce (LD)
Justice committee - Sir Alan Beith (LD)
Northern Ireland committee - Laurence Robertson (Con)
Procedure committee - Greg Knight (Con)
Scottish affairs committee - Ian Davidson (Lab)
Transport committee - Louise Ellman (Lab)
Welsh affairs - David T. C. Davies (Con)

Tags:
• constitution
,
• domestic policy
,
• house of commons
,
• legal and constitutional