Veteran MP Bob Neill has been re-elected to serve as chair of the House of Commons justice select committee. 

Neill saw off a challenge from his Conservative colleague Steve Brine after a vote by MPs on Wednesday. In total, Neill secured 322 backers compared with Brine’s 226, with 37 invalid votes recorded.

Bob neill

Neill: returned to position with 55% of vote

Former health minister Brine had said in his mission statement that select committees should no longer be ‘dry think-tanks, serving the interests of their chairman or members’.

Neill, a qualified barrister, said he was ‘delighted and very honoured’ to be re-elected. He said this week the role requires ‘a genuinely cross-party, non-grandstanding approach, as well as proper engagement with those at the coal face’.

Select committee chairs receive an additional £16,000 salary on top of their annual £79,468 wage for being an MP. Each party is allocated a quota of committees to chair.

Parties will now choose who they want as committee members and put those names to a selection committee.