Lilian Greenwood, the Labour MP for Nottingham South, has been elected as the new Chair of the Transport Committee. I’m happy with this appointment, certainly relative to the other Labour MPs who had put their names forward.
She has been a shadow transport minister in the past and for a time held the buses brief, so is familiar with the issues. Notwithstanding her public utterances on bus policy where she has inevitably had to toe the party line on the need for re-regulation, in practice I think she is far more practical and realistic.
She is down-to-earth, pragmatic and somebody who, as the saying goes, one can do business with.
Under her chairmanship I don’t think we will see the Transport Select Committee taking especially strident positions on transport policy, and I suspect it will remain a pretty non-influential voice in parliament.
Some may say that’s no bad thing – the last thing we want is a group of backbench MPs stirring things up on transport policy. I get that, but I wish the Transport Committee had more influence than it does, as all the time and effort that goes into its inquiries seems to be of little purpose or value.
Meanwhile, all the gossip in the parliamentary bars and tea rooms is about Theresa May and how long she can stay on as Prime Minister.
While most Conservative MPs seem to recognise the need to prop her up in the short term, I have heard a growing view that such is the fragility of her position that she may well be gone by Christmas.
Increasingly the view seems to be that she just isn’t up to the job, and is increasingly dependent on her new Deputy, Damien Green.
For somebody who campaigned on a ticket of “strong and stable leadership” she is far from strong or stable, and her speech last week calling for co-operation from other parties to help deliver Brexit was itself a clear admission of just how weak she is.
And there is hope for those who voted ‘remain’ in last year’s EU referendum.
There is a growing determination among MPs from all parties who support ‘remain’ that they will work to defeat a ‘hard’ Brexit.
Indeed, there seems to be an emerging view that, at worst, a ‘soft’ Brexit is now the only show in town given the result of the general election, whatever Theresa May might say about leaving the single market and the customs union.
In some quarters there is even a view that, at best, Brexit might not now happen at all – because in London and the south east at least, the electorate delivered a punishment beating to the Conservatives in revenge for Brexit.
I’m not so sure, and much will depend on whether Theresa May goes soon or not. This has major implications for us all.
