Energy select committee members ousted by voters

The Energy and Climate Change Select Committee (ECCC) has seen a number of its high profile members from the last parliament ousted from Westminster following the general election.

Four of the committee’s eleven members at the dissolution of parliament will not be returning to Westminster as MPs following the general election result which has seen the Conservative Party secure a narrow majority.

Labour’s John Robertson was a victim of the success of the Scottish National Party, which won 56 of the 59 seats in Scotland. He lost his Glasgow North West seat to the SNP’s Carol Monaghan by more than 10,000 votes.

The former deputy ECCC chair and Liberal Democrat Sir Robert Smith, was one of the many casualties of a disastrous election for his party, coming third in the constituency of West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine behind the Conservative candidate and SNP victor Stuart Donaldson.

Former ECCC chair, Conservative Tim Yeo, was deselected by his local party in February last year and did not stand in the general election, whilst his Tory ECCC colleague Dan Byles also stood down and did not compete for re-election.

The other seven members of the committee – Conservatives Phillip Lee, Peter Lilley, and Chris Pincher, and Labour’s Albert Owen, Graham Stringer, Ian Lavery, and Alan Whitehead – have been re-elected to parliament.

The Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee has seen less of an impact, with three of its members not returning as MPs.

The only two members to lose their seats were Labour’s Iain McKenzie, who was beaten in his seat to the SNP’s Ronnie Cowan, and Liberal Democrat Roger Williams.

Former Efra committee chair Anne McIntosh will not be returning to parliament as she was deselected by her local party in January last year.

The other eight members of the committee have all been re-elected.

The new make-up of the select committees will be decided after parliament returns on 18 May, with the members nominated by the House of Commons.

Law firm Pinsent Masons’ head of public policy Alastair Ross highlighted that the SNP will now have places on the ECCC, as well as the Business, Innovation and Skills select committee.

He added that former SNP leader Alex Salmond may seek to join the ECCC because it “would meet his own political interests and would also give Scottish energy businesses a voice at Westminster, albeit not in government.”