The former shadow education secretary Lucy Powell has been elected to serve on the education select committee alongside two former teachers.
Powell tweeted on Saturday that she was “delighted” to join the committee, which also includes Ian Mearns, who has served on the committee in the last two parliaments.
The full slate of Labour MPs elected to the committee from inside their own party has been confirmed, but Schools Week understands it could be a while before the names of the Conservative members are revealed.
Delighted to join @IanMearnsMP @EmmaHardyMP @Red_Thelma and @JamesFrith on the Education Select Committee – a v strong @UKLabour contingent
— Lucy Powell MP (@LucyMPowell) July 15, 2017
It was reported on Saturday that Emma Hardy, a former teacher, NUT activist and Schools Week columnist, had been elected to serve on the committee.
And it has since been confirmed that Thelma Walker, a former headteacher who was elected to represent Colne Valley in June, will also serve, as will James Frith, the former head of careers education social enterprise All Together.
That brings the number of Labour MPs to five. It is expected there will be six Conservative MPs on the committee including Robert Halfon, the former skills minister, who was elected as chair last week.
And can we expect anything else other than business as usual?
“Tories are evil” scream the Labour MPs.
“Labour is incompetent” scream the Tory MPs.
And of course personal and career agendas trump even party loyalty.
Makes you wonder how things will ever get better …