Andrew Tyrie will chair Treasury Select Committee

Andrew Tyrie has been elected chairman of the powerful Treasury Select Committee of MPs.

He beat the committee's former deputy chairman Michael Fallon, who had been widely tipped to get the job in the City because of his impressive grilling of bankers after the credit crunch.

Tyrie, 53, is Conservative MP for Chichester. An economist by training, he has worked at Oxford University, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and at the head office of oil giant BP. He was previously a special adviser to the Treasury.

Earlier this week in the Commons, Tyrie asked Chancellor George Osborne to clarify how he planned to involve the public in making spending cuts.

Fallon stood down from his position as a non-executive director of broker Tullet Prebon to fight the election.