Harriet Harman has been elected chair of parliament’s Standards Committee.
The Labour MP for Camberwell and Peckham was voted in after former chair Chris Bryant was appointed shadow minister for creative industries and digital in a Labour reshuffle last month, leaving the position vacant.
She is one of three new parliamentary committee chairs to be announced – with Liam Byrne now heading the Business and Trade Committee and Cat Smith chairing the Petitions Committee.
Harman oversaw the investigation into claims that found Boris Johnson had misled MPs when he said he had been assured that Covid lockdown-breaking gatherings in Downing Street had been compliant with the law at the time.
Bryant was chair of the Privileges Committee when its Partygate investigation began, but recused himself because he had already publicly criticised the former PM. Harman was then chosen to take over the position.
She also chairs the Human Rights Committee of MPs and peers.
Harman, who was first elected to parliament in 1982, is known as “mother of the House” as its longest-serving female MP.
She was deputy Labour leader from 2007 to 2015 before a brief stint as acting Labour leader. She has held a number of cabinet and shadow cabinet positions, including constitutional affairs minister and solicitor general under Tony Blair, and leader of the House of Commons and women's minister under Gordon Brown.
The Committee on Standards oversees the work of the parliamentary commissioner for standards and considers complaints about alleged breaches by MPs of their code of conduct. It can also recommend changes to the code.
Its recent work includes an inquiry into allegations of groping made against Chris Pincher, which concluded his behaviour was “completely inappropriate, profoundly damaging to the individuals concerned, and represented an abuse of power”. Pincher resigned as an MP in the wake of the report.
Harman's tenure as its chair is not expected to be a long one as she has announced she will stand down at the next general election.
In her email to constituents announcing her plan to stand down, she said there “remains much more to be done till women genuinely share political power with men on equal terms and until women in this country are equal”.
Byrne pledges to 'hold ministers to account and expose corporate bad behaviour'
Meanwhile, Liam Byrne will oversee the work of the Department for Business and Trade as chair of the business committee.
The Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill was a Home Office minister under Tony Blair before holding a series of roles in Gordon Brown’s administration, including Cabinet Office minister and chief Treasury secretary, between 2008 and 2010.
In the latter role, he left a now-infamous note on the desk of his successor when Labour was voted out in the 2010 general election that read: “I'm afraid there is no money.”
Byrne said the election for the committee position had been “friendly and good-natured” and had “really helped to crystallise a shared agenda for action”.
He said he wanted to sustain the committee's work on "holding ministers to account, exposing corporate bad behaviour and advancing the fight against economic crime".
“Equally, there is a wide consensus that we need to provide serious long-term thinking on how the UK competes with Bidenomics, Brussels and Beijing, de-risks critical supply chains, backs our entrepreneurs and boosts exports, with a special focus on harnessing the net zero transition to re-industrialise Britain," he said.
“Finally, we must develop the big thinking needed on how to best reconnect economic growth and social justice, to ensure the wealth we create is wealth that’s fairly shared.”
Cat Smith, Labour MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood, has been elected as chair of the Petitions Committee, which considers public petitions submitted to the House of Commons.
The three chairs have taken on their roles with immediate effect. They will receive an additional salary of £17,354, on top of their MP's salary of £86,584.