New Chair of the Women & Equalities Committee - the next position to be captured?

[IwantToRetire]

Someone shared this tweet and it made me think, oh no ...

@KateOsborneMP

It was great to chat to @NancyMK from @DIVAmagazine about the big issues facing our LGBTQIA community over the next four years as well as my intention to run for Chair of the Women & Equalities Committee in Parliament

https://x.com/KateOsborneMP/status/1813132119842967680

It's already captured by the odious Caroline Nokes. Not sure it makes that much difference.

I assumed it will not be the old committee, as we now have a new Government.

So whichever MPs put themselves on the committee will then decide who will be the Chair.

Phew - I posted above without checking but Parliament web site says:

Following the Dissolution of Parliament on 30 May 2024, all committees (except some statutory committees) have ceased to exist. Until the new Parliament appoints or reappoints committees following the general election there are no chairs or members. The information on these pages refers to committees and their work before Parliament was dissolved. If there are Government responses to committee reports outstanding, these may be published in the next Parliament.

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/328/women-and-equalities-committee/

It's simply going to go from one awful TWAW MP to another if Osborne gets it, is my point.

Could Rosie Duffield, Tonia Antoniazzi or Kemi Badenoch run for this? Who gets to elect or select the leader?

Kate Osborne has been dire as a member of the previous committee.

I suppose the problem is that with so few Tory MPs would Kemi Badenoch chose to be part of this.

But what a turn around if she did become part of the Committee and the Chair!

Labour are going to get around 19 of the 27 select committee chairs because of their seats. Lets assume they will go for the women/equalities committee. The chair has to be from that party and any backbencher can stand.

Chairs are elected by all MPs in a secret ballot with transferable vote.

Details on the current outlook for chairs. It doesn't discuss the Womens committee:
https://archive.is/YPfA8

It is definitely possible that a pro-woman Labour candidate will stand Rosie, Tonia or Marsha de Cordova perhaps. Remember Rosie was elected chair of the women's PLP twice. As much as I love Rosie the strategic move is someone like Tonia or Marsha de Cordova standing who are just as committed, but are less controversial. I imagine the discussions are ongoing right now about the best plan maybe secret cross party discussions. Alternatively they could agree on backing someone pro-women but who has been more on the sidelines.

While a lot of Labour MPs sometimes like to pretend women don't exist in public in a secret ballot their opinion may be different. We already saw that with Rosie getting elected. Also most Tories would definitely give a pro-woman candidate first votes. So getting the chair is definitely a possibility with some cunning moves.

One factor will depend what the Starmer government thinks. For instance they might not like Kate Osborne or those like her as chair as she will be criticising them for not supporting men enough. Also perhaps more importantly Osborne is from the further left so I think she will not have the votes at all. They also might not want someone really pro-woman as she will calling them out from the other side.

So they might push a middle of the road candidate.

However as I said that doesn't mean they would win. Whatever happens it will be a very interesting indication of what MPs really think about women's rights.

I don't think it's a bad thing having a stupidly biased chair like Noakes was because they show up their stupid bias in public and undermine their own case as a result.

It gets it all out in the open.