Members of Parliament will vote this lunchtime to choose a new Chair of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
The vote comes after the previous Chairman, Tom Tugendhat, was appointed to the government as Minister of Security last month.
Today’s vote is being seen as an indicator of MPs current attitudes to China. The Foreign Affairs Commons Select Committee had reportedly been planning a visit to Taiwan later this year – a move likely to anger the Chinese authorities.
With tensions rising between China and Taiwan, the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, warned at a press conference in August that there would be ‘severe consequences’ should British MPs decide to visit Taiwan.
The Chair of a select committee is allocated to a particular political party by the Commons Speaker at the start of each parliament. With the Foreign Affairs Committee allocated to the Conservatives, all four candidates for the vacant post are therefore Conservative MPs.
These include the former Conservative leader, Iain Duncan-Smith; the former Defence Secretary, Liam Fox; and MPs Richard Graham and Alicia Kearns.
Mr Duncan-Smith, himself on a Chinese sanctions list, is seen as the candidate with the harshest approach towards China.
Richard Graham, the current Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on China and himself a former diplomat who worked in Beijing, is seen as the candidate with a more conciliatory stance on relations with China.
Alicia Kearns is the only candidate who currently sits on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
Fellow MPs will rank the four candidates in order of preference. With the election conducted through the Alternative Vote System, the candidate with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated first. A second and potentially third count is then undertaken as the second preferences of those backing an eliminated candidate are then redistributed to those that remain in the contest.
There is no obvious favourite to win today’s vote.
Although the current contest has seen a large amount of quiet campaigning by those involved, the result of the vote is likely to hinge on whether there is a particular candidate around which Labour MPs are likely to coalesce.
Separate to the newly appointed Chair, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee comprises 11 MPs, currently 5 Conservatives, 3 Labour MPs, 1 SNP MP, and 1 independent MP.
The post MPs set to chose next Chair of Foreign Affairs Select Committee appeared first on Politics.co.uk.
The vote comes after the previous Chairman, Tom Tugendhat, was appointed to the government as Minister of Security last month.
Today’s vote is being seen as an indicator of MPs current attitudes to China. The Foreign Affairs Commons Select Committee had reportedly been planning a visit to Taiwan later this year – a move likely to anger the Chinese authorities.
With tensions rising between China and Taiwan, the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, warned at a press conference in August that there would be ‘severe consequences’ should British MPs decide to visit Taiwan.
The Chair of a select committee is allocated to a particular political party by the Commons Speaker at the start of each parliament. With the Foreign Affairs Committee allocated to the Conservatives, all four candidates for the vacant post are therefore Conservative MPs.
These include the former Conservative leader, Iain Duncan-Smith; the former Defence Secretary, Liam Fox; and MPs Richard Graham and Alicia Kearns.
Mr Duncan-Smith, himself on a Chinese sanctions list, is seen as the candidate with the harshest approach towards China.
Richard Graham, the current Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on China and himself a former diplomat who worked in Beijing, is seen as the candidate with a more conciliatory stance on relations with China.
Alicia Kearns is the only candidate who currently sits on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
Fellow MPs will rank the four candidates in order of preference. With the election conducted through the Alternative Vote System, the candidate with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated first. A second and potentially third count is then undertaken as the second preferences of those backing an eliminated candidate are then redistributed to those that remain in the contest.
There is no obvious favourite to win today’s vote.
Although the current contest has seen a large amount of quiet campaigning by those involved, the result of the vote is likely to hinge on whether there is a particular candidate around which Labour MPs are likely to coalesce.
Separate to the newly appointed Chair, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee comprises 11 MPs, currently 5 Conservatives, 3 Labour MPs, 1 SNP MP, and 1 independent MP.
The post MPs set to chose next Chair of Foreign Affairs Select Committee appeared first on Politics.co.uk.