STEPHEN Flynn will serve on the Commons’ Scottish Affairs Committee – after controversy over the SNP’s exclusion.
He will join the other 10 members of the committee, which is chaired by Labour’s Patricia Ferguson (below).
The committee’s stated purpose is to scrutinise the “expenditure, administration and policies of the Scotland Office” and it also looks at the work of the wider UK Government through a Scottish lens.
The SNP’s exclusion from the committee was the source of controversy last month.
Committee membership is proportional to representation in the Commons, with chair positions divvied up between the three big parties.
It had widely been expected before the membership list of the Scottish Affairs Committee had been announced that the SNP would be given a place, despite not qualifying for one, according to a strict interpretation of the rules.
In the last parliament, it was chaired by SNP MP Pete Wishart (below).
After last week confirming the party had been offered a place on the committee, an SNP spokesperson said it “speaks volumes about the broken Westminster system, that the SNP was not afforded an automatic place on the Scottish Affairs Committee despite being Scotland's party of government”.
MPs do not necessarily need to represent Scottish constituencies or be Scottish to sit on the committee.
Tory MP Jack Rankin, who represents the Home Counties constituency of Windsor, sits on the current iteration of the committee.
Because of Westminster’s lack of proportional representation, the LibDems were offered two automatic seats on the committee as the third largest party in parliament – despite winning fewer Scottish seats and votes than the SNP.
The same is true for the Conservatives, who also were given two seats automatically.
