This afternoon, we’ll find out who will be leading the Parliamentary scrutiny of Brexit as MPs vote for the chairs of the new select committee on Brexit.
It’s a race between Labour’s Hilary Benn, who campaigned for Remain, and Brexiteer Kate Hoey who does not think that membership of the single market is an achievable outcome.
From the Herald:
Labour’s Hilary Benn, the former shadow foreign secretary, is tipped to become chairman of the committee, which will have 21 members, including 10 Tories and MPs from six opposition parties; the average committee normally has 11 members.
But Ms Hoey, who represents Vauxhall in London, has also thrown her hat in the ring and, among those nominating her, is the former SNP leader. The onetime sports minister has said she wants Britain to have the fullest possible access to the single market but argues that taking back full control of immigration is incompatible with membership.
It is quite bizarre that Alex Salmond has chosen to nominate Kate Hoey given that the SNP has (rightly) been very vocal about the importance of continuing membership of the single market for the whole UK and for Scotland in particular. Why on earth would be support someone who doesn’t support that outcome?
Lib Dem Peer Jeremy Purvis had this to say on the matter:
It is astonishing that the SNP’s shadow foreign secretary Alex Salmond wants a dyed-in-the-wool Leave campaigner as chair of the Brexit scrutiny committee.
This decision blows a hole in the First Minister’s claim to be working with people across the UK to keep Scotland inside the single market. Kate Hoey has already made clear that she wants to see us all out of the single market.
David Davis, Liam Fox and Boris Johnson have utterly failed to provide details of what Brexit will mean for Scotland and the UK. The decision of the SNP to back giving the job of asking the hard questions to one of the chief supporters of Brexit makes no sense at all and is against the interests of Scotland, though it perhaps serves the purposes of those seeking any excuse for a second independence poll.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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10 Comments
A cynic might ponder that a hard Brexit might help the cause of those in favour of an independent Scotland.
I see no insight in the article about Alex Salmond’s motives. I too was surprised.
The SNP will campaign for independence regardless of Brexit or not. To my mind hard Brexit makes a Scottish vote for independence less likely.
Very simple. The chair of a commons committee votes only in the event of a tie, so the choice does not affect the balance of the committee. Any member of the committee has the right to ask the hard questions. Hilary Benn is the darling of the tory party after his support for trident and ill-advised wars and is less well disposed towards the SNP in general and so it is reasonable to suppose is more likely to be obstructive to SNP MPs asking the hard questions. It is perfectly possible to reach the judgement that Kate Hoey, despite her personal views is the personality that is more likely to be a fairer committee chair. Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with thinking a woman could do the job of being a fair chair better than a man anyway.
I agree with Kim. A hard Brexit will give much more power to the SNPs demand for another Scottish independence referendum .
Even more astonishing is that Corbyn is clearly backing the Far Right Hoey over The Centre-Left Benn. Hoey is actually well to the Right of most of UKIP, a decent Party would have expelled her years ago. For Corbyn though his war with The PLP majority takes precedence over any lingering principles he may retain.
Hilary Benn won the election.
Caron or anyone baffled by this needs to utter three letters , wherein is the answer to what in most circumstances or all, baffles, SNP !
Caron, whilst as liberal democrats we always like to see the most talented and sensible people appointed to important positions not necesarily so the SNP. It is in their interest to highlight labour party weirdos.
Her ignorance of how the EU works probably told against Ms Hoey.
“though it perhaps serves the purposes of those seeking any excuse for a second independence poll.”
If the Lib Dems do want to be the lead supporter of the Union then perhaps there should be greater focus on Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish moments on this site and further afield.