This from Roger Ford...
Sad news from Westminster.
Under Parliamentary rules Select Committee chairs are limited to two Parliamentary terms, which means that a replacement must be found for Eye's favourite inquisitor Louise Ellman (Didn't we do this back in April? Ed)
Her modest, almost diffident, demeamour in the chair of the Transport Select Committee concealed a shrewd grasp of the issues and an interrogation technique which, unusually, generated more light than heat.
An abiding pleasure is her, and her Committee's dissection of DfT Permant Secretary Philip Rutnam over the Great Western Electrification Programme.
At her hearings you knew someone was in trouble when she gave them that quizical look over her spectacles before asking a seemingly simple question, which was often almost impossible to answer honestly without political fall out.
Louise - the railway industry will miss you!
UPDATE: Meanwhile, Eye understands that the following MPs are likely to appear on the ballot to be Labour's new chair of the Transport Select Committee:
- Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South);
- Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South);
- Clive Efford (Eltham); and
- Geraint Davies (Swansea West)
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