Ex-minister Harriett Baldwin elected as Treasury Committee chair
Tory MP Harriett Baldwin has been elected as the new chair of the Treasury Select Committee, after prevailing in a cross-party ballot.
Baldwin, a former Treasury and defence minister, defeated former cabinet ministers Andrea Leadsom and Kit Malthouse in the vote.
Baldwin will begin the role immediately, after previous chair Mel Stride was recently appointed as work and pensions secretary in Rishi Sunak’s government.
The chair of the Treasury Select Committee leads the questioning of Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey and other senior members of the central bank on a regular basis.
The committee also gets an opportunity to scrutinise the chancellor and other Treasury ministers throughout the year.
In a short House of Commons statement today, Baldwin said: “Whether they voted for me or not we seek to serve [MPs] on our committee.
“We look forward to hearing from all colleagues on the issues that matter to them most.”
Baldwin worked for J.P Morgan for more than two decades before entering parliament in 2010.
The West Worcestershire MP was appointed as a junior Treasury minister by ex-Prime Minister David Cameron in 2014.
She was made a minister at the Ministry of Defence and then at the now defunct Department for International Development by Theresa May, before heading to the backbenches under Boris Johnson.