Labour MPs shun Efra committee

Ex-Labour MP Sion Simon revealed the omission on his website – Labour Uncut – which listed the parliamentary select committees Labour MPs had applied to.

Despite there being five spots available on the Efra committee none of the 258 Labour MPs had chosen to sit on it.

Martin O’Donovan, Parliamentary Labour Party Secretary, has now asked MPs who failed to get on their first choice committee to make up the numbers on Efra.

Neil Parish, one of five Conservative MPs already on the Efra committee, said he wasn’t surprised by the lack of Labour interest.

“Most of the Labour seats are in urban areas and now they are in opposition we can see how much they really value the countryside, with a cold shoulder,” he said.

Select committees are cross-party groups of backbench MPs, normally 11 strong, who hold their mother department – in this case Defra – to account.

There are already five Conservatives, including chairman Anne McIntosh, on Efra which leaves five spots for Labour and one for the Liberal Democrats.

The Liberal Democrats are due to announce their member next week by which time Labour must also find five MPs to join the committee.

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