Tame names for Barclays banking committee
We now know the MPs who’ll be sitting on the new joint parliamentary commission who’ll be looking into Barclays and the Libor scandal. Apart from the Conservative Chairman Andrew Tyrie (who’s had already been named), they’re Mark Garnier (Con), Andy Love (Labour), Pat McFadden (Labour) and John Thurso (Lib Dem).
So there’ll be just five MPs in all – two Conservative, two Labour and one Lib Dem. No minor parties, no women and three Scots (investigating the Bank of England!).
More important, it looks like a pretty tame list. If I were appointing tough members from the Treasury select committee I’d certainly have considered David Ruffley, Jesse Norman and Andrea Leadsom from the Tories, and John Mann from Labour. And also Stewart Hosie of the SNP.
There’s talk at Westminster that Ruffley and Norman are the victims of “punishment beatings”, having been ring-leaders of the Lords rebellion earlier this week – Norman as leader of the rebels, and Ruffley as unofficial whip. And Andrea Leadsom won’t have been flavour of the month in Downing Street either, after calling on George Osborne to apologise to Ed Balls.
The fact that the list is so tame on both sides suggests that both major parties are nervous about what the inquiry might come up with. All three party leaders have put their names to the list, along with George Osborne and Ed Balls. John Mann is so angry at his own omission that he’s threatening to set up his own inquiry.
The other interesting news is that the committee will be allowed to have a QC to help them examine witnesses. One name tipped for this role is Jonathan Fisher, a QC who specialises in financial crime. He already sits on the government’s bill of rights commission and is a leading light in the Society of Conservative Lawyers.
No Lords names have been relased yet, nor even a number (though it can’t be more than five). Lord (John) McFall is likely to be on the list, and I would imagine Lord (John) MacGregor who is Chairman of the Lords economic affairs committee.
Another issue is what happens to the existing Treasury select committee. They’ll be meeting on Monday afternoon to decide whether to carry on with their current inquiry into banking. Those excluded from the new joint body, such as David Ruffley and John Mann, are bound to take a strong line with the chairman Andrew Tyrie, and insist the current inquiry should continue, and also that Tyrie himself should stand down temporarily from the committee, and his role chairing the new body will be pretty much full-time.
The question then arises of who takes over the Treasury committee. Michael Fallon was runner-up to Tyrie in the election for chairman, but he would be a difficult choice, as he’s vice-chairman of the Conservative party, and a key figure in Downing Street. Another possibility would be George Mudie, the Labour MP who chairs the Treasury committee’s one sub-committee.
Follow Michael on Twitter via @MichaelLCrick