How select committees could cause trouble for Keir Starmer

It’s not just the Tories facing a big vote next week. Across the House of Commons, MPs will be choosing which of their number should chair the 26 select committees up for grabs. Every MP gets a vote but only backbenchers can stand: nominations close on Monday with voting done on Wednesday. Positions are allocated in line with the election result. Labour’s gargantuan majority thus ensures that they chair 18 of the 26 committees. The Tories are reduced to five with the Lib Dems awarded three.

Select committees are another reminder that, for all the recent attention on the smaller parties, parliamentary institutions can often help the big ones. The four Green MPs, for instance, will not get a seat on a single select committee. The same is true of Reform, much to the disappointment of Lee Anderson, who loses his place on the Home Affairs panel. His colleague Richard Tice says that he and his fellow Reform MPs will not be voting for the select committee chairs ‘in protest at this injustice’.