Former education ministers Robert Halfon and Tim Loughton are to stand for election to chair the House of Commons education committee.
Schools Week’s sister paper FE Week has learned that Halfon, the former skills minister who was unceremoniously sacked by Theresa May in her recent reshuffle and Loughton, who served as children and families minister between 2012 and 2014 are in the running for the job.
Former chair Neil Carmichael, who had intended to run again for the role he held for just two years, lost his seat at the general election.
Parliament is due to vote today on which party will get the committee chairship, and is likely to approve plans to hand it to a Conservative.
Tory MPs will then have until 5pm on Friday to canvass support and get their nominations in ahead of a vote next week.
Others thought to be canvasing support in order to run for election include Dan Poulter and Stephen McPartland.
It is the second time that Loughton has put his name forward for the job.
In 2015, he ran against Carmichael and fellow Conservative Caroline Nokes, but was defeated in the second round of voting by Carmichael.
Such a shame Neil Carmichael isn’t available – he did a great job. I can’t imaging Loughton doing it well. He was last seen campaigning ineptly for Andrea Leadsom. Halfon might be good….