MP is first woman to chair top committee
LOUGHBOROUGH MP Nicky Morgan has been elected as the first woman to chair the influential Treasury Select Committee.
The former Education Secretary saw off five other Tory MPs to land the role scrutinising the Government’s finances.
The contest for the Treasury Select Committee, previously chaired by Andrew Tyrie, pitted pro-EU Tory Mrs Morgan against party colleagues including backbencher Jacob ReesMogg.
Mrs Morgan has repeatedly clashed with Prime Minister Theresa May since being axed from the Cabinet.
Mrs Morgan won 200 of the 570 votes cast in the first round of votes, with the election decided on the alternative vote system, and ended up with 290 votes after the fifth round of voting.
MP Nicky Morgan told the Echo: “I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, and you never know how people are going to vote but I was extremely happy with how it turned out and very pleased with the result.
“It is an important position and it means that I will have an influential position being able to hold all of the Government’s finances to account.
“I feel that I’ve always been really good at bringing forward the opinions of my local residents and I feel like this is another opportunity for me to share concerns of the Loughborough people.
“I am sure that I will have local people coming up to me and telling me their opinions about the economy and I always feel that what I hear from the Loughborough people is a good barometer of what the country wants to know.”