MPs elect Neil Carmichael as education committee chair

Carmichael, Conservative MP for Stroud, received the backing of 294 MPs to Loughton's 252 in a second ballot to decide who would lead the education committee over the course of the parliament.

In the first round of voting, Carmichael amassed 224 votes to Loughton's 191, a narrow enough margin to require a second ballot. Caroline Nokes, the Conservative MP for Romsey and Southampton North, was eliminated in the first round of elections for the committee chairmanship.

Carmichael has been a member of the education committee since first being elected to parliament in 2010. The 54-year-old was elected with a majority of nearly 5,000 in May's general election.

Over the past five years he has also led the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Education Governance and Leadership and lists promoting training in manufacturing and engineering sectors among his political interests.

During the contest for the chair Carmichael said that he wanted the committee to look at “long-standing concerns” including the accountability of academies and free schools and the restructuring of school funding.

Other key priorities he outlined include child protection, early years strategy and the role of regional school commissioners in improving education standards.

Carmichael replaces fellow Conservative MP Graham Stuart, who had been chair for the last five years but announced that he would be standing down after the general election.

The political parties will now select their representatives for committee membership with an announcement expected next month.

Loughton, the Conservative MP for East Worthing who announced earlier this month he would be standing to be committee chair, had been critical of government policy on a number of occasions since he was sacked as children’s minister in 2012.

He was particularly concerned that under the coalition government the Department for Education had become too focused on school reform at the expense of children and family policy.