Four women (and 12 men) elected to chair Commons select committees

A woman MP – Margaret Hodge – has beaten off some strong male challengers to win one of the first contested elections for the chair of a select committee. 

Hodge, who was the children's minister in the former Labour government, is now the chair of the influential Public Accounts Committee. Its reports frequently set the political agenda by exposing concerns over spending by Government bodies, according to a report in the Telegraph. 

That's the good news. The bad news is that, of the 16 committees up for grabs, only three other women managed to get elected. They are:

• Anne McIntosh, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
• Anne Begg, Work and Pensions Committee
• Joan Walley, Environmental Audit Committee