Select committees: Cooper and Benn keep positions as Greenwood and Reeves win

Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn won their elections for influential select committees uncontested, while Rachel Reeves and Lilian Greenwood were among the newly elected chairs.

Reeves, the Leeds West MP and former economist, beat colleagues Ian Lucas, Liam Byrne and Albert Owen to the coveted role of business, energy and industrial strategy committee chair.

Greenwood, the former shadow transport secretary, who resigned last June, was elected chair of transport select committee. She beat Geraint Davies, Clive Efford, Gavin Shuker and Bridget Phillipson in the vote. The election, which uses the alternative vote system, went to the fourth round where Greenwood beat Phillipson by just eight votes.

Clive Betts defeated Tottenham’s David Lammy to the position of chair of the communities and local government select committee in the first round, by 335 votes to 229.

Mary Creagh was elected unopposed to continue in her role as environmental audit committee chair.

Cooper and Benn continue as chairs of the home affairs and Brexit select committees respectively — two of the most influential of all the groups.

The full results were:

Contested votes:
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Labour): Rachel Reeves
Communities and Local Government (Labour): Clive Betts
Defence (Conservative): Dr Julian Lewis
Education (Conservative): Robert Halfon
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Conservative): Neil Parish
Foreign Affairs (Conservative): Tom Tugendhat
Northern Ireland Affairs (Conservative): Dr Andrew Murrison
Science and Technology (Liberal Democrat): Norman Lamb
Transport (Labour): Lilian Greenwood
Treasury (Conservative): Nicky Morgan
Backbench Business Committee (Opposition party): Ian Mearns

Uncontested votes:
Culture, Media and Sport (Conservative): Damian Collins
Exiting the EU (Labour): Hilary Benn
Health (Conservative): Dr Sarah Wollaston
Home Affairs (Labour): Yvette Cooper
International Development (Labour): Stephen Twigg
International Trade (Scottish National Party): Angus Brendan MacNeil
Justice (Conservative): Robert Neill
Scottish Affairs (Scottish National Party): Pete Wishart
Welsh Affairs (Conservative): David T C Davies
Women and Equalities (Conservative): Mrs Maria Miller
Work and Pensions (Labour): Frank Field
Environmental Audit (Labour): Mary Creagh
Petitions (Labour): Helen Jones
Procedure (Conservative): Mr Charles Walker
Public Accounts (Labour): Meg Hillier
Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs (Conservative): Mr Bernard Jenkin
Standards (Labour): Sir Kevin Barron