´óÏó´«Ã½

Jeremy Hunt is among a clutch of former cabinet ministers seeking election to chair a House of Commons select committee.

The ex-health secretary will face fellow Tory MP Anne Marie Morris in the contest to chair the health and social care committee.

Former business secretary Greg Clark is running to chair the science and technology committee.

Nominations close on 27 January, with elections taking place two days later.

Mr Hunt, who unsuccessfully ran against Boris Johnson for the Conservative leadership last year, also served as foreign secretary under former Prime Minister Theresa May.

Twenty-seven committee chair posts are up for election following the dissolution of Parliament last month ahead of December's general election.

Latest nominations also show Labour MP Hillary Benn wants to to continue his chairmanship of the Brexit select committee he has led since late 2016.

It was set up to scrutinise the work of the Brexit department, which is due to shut down at the end of the month. But the committee will now turn its attention to UK-EU trade talks.

Among other declared runners, former Welsh secretary Stephen Crabb has thrown his hat into the ring to chair the Welsh affairs committee.

Meanwhile, Labour MPs Debbie Abrahams, Chris Bryant and Stephen Timms have put themselves forward to chair the work and pensions committee.

The trio will battle it out to replace former chairman and veteran ex-Labour MP Frank Field, who lost his Birkenhead seat at last month's election.

Most committee chairs have been elected by the entire Commons using a secret ballot system, since changes were introduced in 2010.

According to a carve-up of the posts following the election, the Conservatives will chair 16 committees and Labour nine. The SNP will retain their chairmanships of both the Scottish affairs and international trade committees.