AN SNP MP has lost his place as chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee as Labour takeover following the General Election.
On Tuesday, the allocations of which parties would chair the UK Parliament’s Select Committees were released following a period of negotiation between Labour, the Conservatives and the LibDems.
The SNP’s loss of 38 seats at the General Election meant they would no longer be eligible to chair any committees as nominations to do so must be accompanied by the signatures of 15 MPs from the same party as the candidate.
Currently, the SNP have nine MPs at Westminster.
The allocation is divided according to the numbers of MPs from each party, with Labour set to chair more than two-thirds of committees.
Meanwhile, the Tories will chair five and the LibDems three.
It means that SNP MP Pete Wishart will lose his place as chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee.
He has presided over the committee’s proceedings since 2017, clashing with outgoing Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross on numerous occasions.
Watch to see Douglas Ross told off for 'barking' in Pete Wishart's ear AND interrupting Deirdre Brock during a Scottish Affairs Committee session pic.twitter.com/qKmZKjAyhi
— The National (@ScotNational) July 11, 2023
A Labour MP will replace Wishart as chair, although no announcement on who this will be has yet been made.
The Scottish Affairs Committee is intended to scrutinise the work of the Scotland Office and examine the impact of UK policies on Scotland.
Before Rishi Sunak called a General Election, former first minister Nicola Sturgeon had been due to appear before the committee on July 1.
It’s expected her appearance will be rescheduled when MPs return to parliament following the summer recess on September 1.
