Dame Diana Johnson Elected As New Home Affairs Select Committee Chair
2 min read
Labour MP Diana Johnson has been elected as the new chair of the home affairs select committee, replacing Yvette Cooper who stood down to become shadow home secretary.
Johnson, who has served as MP for Kingston upon Hull North since 2005, won with a total 154 votes once second preference ballots were taken into account.
She will take on her role as chair of the cross-party select committee with immediate effect.
315 votes were cast by MPs overall for Johnson and the two other candidates: Labour MPs Dr Rupa Huq and Yasmin Qureshi.
Qureshi received 74 votes in the first stage, excluding her from the second round, while Huq received 96 and Johnson received 145.
Huq ultimately got 132 votes, falling short of the 144-vote quota needed to assume the role and leaving her 22 votes behind Johnson.
Only Labour MPs were eligible for the post, but all MPs could cast votes in the ballot which operates under the Alternative Vote (AV) system.
As well as already serving as a member of the committee, Johnson was also previously a shadow home office minister for five years.
She also served as a government whip and an education minister under the last Labour government.
In her pitch to become chair of the committee, Johnson said she believed she had "the experience, the commitment and the temperament needed to ensure that this Select Committee does its work diligently, effectively and consensually".
The MP pledged to focus on post-Brexit immigration policy, violence against women and girls, online harms, and modern slavery among other areas if she were elected.
Alongside her work on the committee, Johnson is well known for her work on the contaminated blood scandal, and on abortion rights.
She has also campaigned for the laws around prostitution to be reformed, and is vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel.
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