Following yesterday’s elections for the chairs of Parliament’s select committees, it is the Conservative MP, Neil Parish, who will chair the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.
The chairs of the departmental select committees were announced by the Speaker, the Rt Hon John Bercow. In total, 54 nominations were received for 27 select committees. Eleven chair positions were contested through elections. No election was necessary for 17 committees for which a single nomination was received, including that of Environmental Audit Commission, which will be chaired by Mary Creagh.
Parish was elected as the MP for the constituency of Tiverton and Honiton in May 2010 and has retained his seat ever since.
During his first term of office he sat on the EFRA Select Committee and was Chair of the Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare from 2010 to 2015.
In July 2014, Parish was selected to be Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Rt Hon John Hayes MP, the then Minister of State for Transport. And upon his re-election in 2015, Neil was elected as Chair of the EFRA Select Committee, following on from his experience in the European Parliament, where he was Chair of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee.
In this latest election he beat Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative NP for Richmond Park and former London Mayoral candidate; and Bill Wiggin, the Conservative MP for North Herefordshire and a former Shadow Minister for Agriculture & Fisheries.
