Hilary Benn and Yvette Cooper to chair Brexit and Home Affairs select committees

The two centrist Labour MPs will have influential new roles

Hilary Benn will take a key role over Brexit (Getty)

Two senior centrist Labour MPs have been elected to chair influential parliamentary committees, it has been announced.

Hilary Benn, the former shadow foreign secretary, was elected chair of new Brexit Committee, while Yvette Cooper, the former shadow home secretary, was elected chair of Home Affairs Committee.

The announcements were made in the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon by the Speaker John Bercow.

The high profile appointments will give the two MPs new platforms from which to conduct politics and raise their profile – after they decided not to serve in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.

Two other well-known Labour MPs, Chuka Umunna and Caroline Flint, stood for the Home Affair jobs but lost out.

Mr Benn, a prominent Remain campaigner, beat Kate Hoey, a Eurosceptic Labour MP, for the Brexit committee chairmanship.

Mr Benn previously served in Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet but has not returned after his re-election. Ms Cooper has never served in Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.

Yvette Cooper will scrutinise the Home Office (AFP/Getty)

Other committee chairs elected on the same day include Angus Brendan Macneil, an SNP MP who will chair the new International Trade Committee, Tory MP Damian Collins, who will chair the Culture Committee, and Tory MP Stephen Metcalfe, who will chair the Science and Technology Committee.

Mr Macneil was elected unopposed after nobody else stood for the Trade Committee’s chairmanship.

That committee as well as the Brexit Committee are newly created and will scrutinise the work of the new Deparmtent for Exiting the European Union and Deparmtent for International Trade – which are headed by David Davis and Liam Fox respectively.

The chairmanship of the Home Affairs Committee however became vacant after its longtime chair Labour MP Keith Vaz stepped down.