Nicky Morgan MP has been elected as the new chair of the Treasury select committee, the first woman to ever hold the post.
She will formally take up the position of chair when the remaining members of the committee have been appointed by the House.
Ms Morgan, a prominent “Remainer”, beat rival colleagues to the post including the Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg who had been thought to be the favourite.
The Treasury committee is one of the most powerful in Parliament, scrutinising such organisations as the Bank of England, the Treasury – and the financial services sector.
It will also hold the government to account on Brexit's consequences for the Square Mile.
The previous chair Andrew Tyrie retired from politics ahead of the June general election.
Ms Morgan, born in 1972, is the member for parliament for Loughborough and is married to an architect.
She studied law at Oxford University and worked as a solicitor specialising in corporate law advising a range of private and public companies from 1994 till her election in 2010.
She has previously served as secretary of state for education, and minister for women and equalities (2014 - 16).
She was also financial secretary to the Treasury (2014), minister for women (2014), economic secretary to the Treasury (2013 - 14), an assistant government whip (2012 - 13) and the parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the Rt Hon. David Willetts MP, cabinet minister for universities and science (2010 - 12).
In summer 2010 she was elected by her fellow MPs to serve on the business, innovation and skills select committee, but gave up that position following her appointment as a PPS.
Ms Morgan was re-elected as the member of parliament for Loughborough in the 2015 general election and again in 2017.
Ms Morgan won the election to chair the select committee after picking up support from a number of Labour MPs.
She was backed for the committee chairmanship by a wide range of MPs including Michael Gove, the Brexiteer environment secretary, and saw off rivals including former ministers Stephen Hammond and John Penrose, veteran backbencher Richard Bacon and former whip Charlie Elphicke.
She had earlier said that she wanted the job in order to “forge a wide consensus on Brexit” and for Parliament to scrutinise ministers’ decisions.
She has warned that a hard Brexit would “promote bigotry and intolerance” in Britain.
Ms Morgan has said she would extend the Treasury committee’s work to broader issues such as household debt and childcare funding.
“Delighted and honoured to be elected by my fellow MPs…lots to do now,” she said on Twitter on Wednesday (12 July).
