ROBERT Halfon, who served as select education committee chair from 2017 to 2019, has been re-elected unopposed as the chair for the committee today.

Mr Halfon described his re-election as an “honour” on his Twitter account, having confirmed he would seek re-election in December 2019.

A true honour to have been re-elected as the Chair of the Education Select Committee. pic.twitter.com/iMvxWjcxnn

— Robert Halfon MP -Working Hard for Harlow- (@halfon4harlowMP) January 27, 2020

No other MPs stood against him and he was re-elected at 4pm today.

Robert Halfon: ‘We must face facts about GCSEs’

In a supporting statement, Mr Halfon emphasised the need to help disadvantaged pupils who are 19 months behind their peers at GCSE, with some groups “particularly vulnerable”.

He added: “If re-elected as chair, I will continue to work with colleagues to champion skills, social justice, standards, and support for the teaching profession. These should be the interlocking foundations of the government’s education programme.”

Mr Halfon was first elected to the committee chair in 2017, having served as skills minister prior to that.

He has spoken previously of a “clear correlation” between school exclusions and knife crime and has also described funding for SEND in schools as a “Wild West” situation.

And he has argued against the “cliff-edge” nature of the reformed GCSE qualifications.

A true honour to have been re-elected as the Chair of the Education Select Committee. pic.twitter.com/iMvxWjcxnn

— Robert Halfon MP -Working Hard for Harlow- (@halfon4harlowMP) January 27, 2020