Labour big hitters seek to replace Vaz at helm of home affairs committee

A series of former Cabinet ministers and frontbenchers are vying to replace troubled Keith Vaz when the chair of a key Commons committee is chosen tomorrow.

Chuka Umunna, Yvette Cooper, Caroline Flint and Paul Flynn are all in the running for the vacant position of chair of the Home Affairs select committee, following the resignation of Vaz last month.

Umunna, Cooper and Flint were thought to be the only candidates for the Home Affairs committee role as nominations closed today, but veteran left winger Flynn has made a surprising last-minute bid. It’s a new twist that sees former leadership hopefuls Cooper and Umunna, and ex-deputy leadership candidate Flint, vie for votes with 81 year old Flynn, who has just completed his first ever stint on the frontbench after almost three decades in Parliament.

Flynn, who jointly served as shadow Leader of the House and shadow Wales Secretary, is thought to be a wildcard outsider in the election, with Umunna, Cooper and Flint all believed to have strong support. His entrance, though, will shake up a contest that would otherwise have been a battle between high profile Corbynsceptics unwilling to serve on the Labour frontbench under the current leadership.

Umunna is already a member of the Home Affairs committee and has used the position to ensure he maintains prominence while serving on the backbenches. He made a big intervention following the publication of the committee’s report into anti-Semitism this week, which included some strong criticism of Jeremy Corbyn. The Streatham MP claims to have support of the majority of the serving committee, and was nominated by former shadow Health Secretary Heidi Alexander as well as former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.

Cooper will hope that her four years of experience as Shadow Home Secretary will stand her in good stead for the election, and her strong base of support within the Parliamentary Labour Party – she received 57 nominations from MPs in last year’s leadership contest – will make her tough to beat. In an interesting twist, Clegg’s successor as Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, is backing her.

But Flint, a former Cabinet minister, should not be ruled out. She is believed to be popular across parties in Parliament, which helped her secure the only non-Government amendment to the recent Finance Bill – and cross-party support will be vital in this race.

You can see the full list of nominations below:

Yvette Cooper 

Nominated by (own party)

Margaret Beckett, Alan Johnson, Ms Harriet Harman, Keir Starmer, Iain Wright, David Lammy, Gisela Stuart, Yasmin Qureshi, Fiona Mactaggart, Ruth Smeeth, David Hanson, Thangham Debbonaire, Vernon Coaker, Shabana Mahmood, Kate Green.

Nominated by (other parties)

Dominic Grieve, Maria Miller, David Burrowes, Charles Walker, Tim Farron.

Caroline Flint

Nominated by (own party)

Siobhain McDonagh, George Howarth, Angela Eagle, Mary Creagh, Liz Kendall, Meg Hillier, Lisa Nandy, Wes Streeting, Christian Matheson, Anna Turley, Dr Alan Whitehead, Luciana Berger, Karin Smyth, Graham Jones, Dan Jarvis.

Nominated by (other parties)

Mark Durkan, John Pugh, Charlie Elphicke, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Roger Mullin.

Paul Flynn

Nominated by (own party)

Ronnie Campbell, Richard Burgon, Andy McDonald, Dennis Skinner, Nick Smith, Cat Smith, Sir Alan Meale, Kelvin Hopkins, Rachael Maskell, Carolyn Harris, Kate Hoey, Margaret Greenwood, Ian Mearns, Graham Allen, Clive Lewis.

Nominated by (other parties)

Ronnie Cowan.

Chuka Umunna

Nominated by (own party)

Naz Shah, Stephen Twigg, Emma Reynolds, Adrian Bailey, Louise Ellman, Rushanara Ali, Nic Dakin, Heidi Alexander, Kerry McCarthy, Steve Reed, Pat McFadden, Stephen Kinnock, Jim McMahon, Ben Bradshaw, Jonathan Reynolds.

Nominated by (other parties)

James Berry, Nusrat Ghani, Ranil Jayawardena, Helen Grant, Nick Clegg.