THE Barrow MP Michelle Scrogham has been announced as one of the members of the new defence select committee. 

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, the MP for Slough, was elected as chair of the committee in September in a secret ballot. The parties have since proposed the other committee members, which mirrors the current political makeup of the House of Commons. 

This means that out of the nine committee members, seven are Labour MP and two are Conservative. 

The committee's job is to hold the Ministry of Defence and the Government to account. They will intermittently publish reports and exchange correspondence with key stakeholders in defence. 

Select committees can often prompt national debate depending on the nature of their reports. A notable example of this in the previous defence committee was when the members said that the UK's armed forces was not ready for a 'high intensity' war due to shortages in personnel. 

Mrs Scrogham's Barrow and Furness constituency hosts BAE, which builds the submarines carrying the UK's nuclear deterrent. 

The Barrow shipyard is a key factor in the AUKUS deal, which committed the UK into helping develop the Australian navy's submarine fleet.