Fun and games in the great Brexit election

Will Michael Gove give it a go?

It's one for the Kremlinologists, but the internal election amongst Conservative MPs, this week, for places on the new Brexit select committee will provide an intriguing glimpse of the balance of opinion on the Tory benches of the Commons.

Around 20 MPs of varying seniority and repute are chasing the 10 seats reserved for Conservatives on the committee - and my sources suggest some very big names are interested.

Former cabinet ministers Michael Gove, John Whittingdale and Peter Lilley top the seniority charts, followed by ex-Justice Minister Dominic Raab (one of the big surprise omissions from the new government) - plus usual-suspect Eurosceptic backbenchers Peter Bone and Nigel Mills.

On the "Remain" wing of the party, former ministers Anna Soubry, Alistair Burt and Jonathan Djanogly, plus backbenchers Jeremy Lefroy and Antoinette Sandbach, are said to be running.

Peter Lilley: Well, will he?

Either because of a lack of willing candidates or a reluctance to be thought to be attempting to crowd out the Leave side, there seem to be only five outright Remainers in the field . But it will certainly be an interesting indicator if most or all of the five Remainers are elected.

And Michael Gove's performance will tell us something about the levels of forgiveness or otherwise between the warring tribes on the Leave side.

I'm told the 1922 Committee, which oversees the elections, hopes to announce the results on Wednesday, probably along with the Conservative membership of the new International Trade Committee, which will oversee Liam Fox's newly created department.

The members from the other parties will emerge from their particular internal processes in due course - there will be five Labour MPs (one already filled by the chairman, Hilary Benn), and there are some pro-Remain heavyweights lining up for the remaining seats. These include Pat McFadden, Emma Reynolds, Tristram Hunt, Stephen Kinnock, Seema Malholtra, Stella Creasy, Melanie Onn and Lillian Greenwood. Under party rules the Labour delegation has to have at least two women MPs - and they're voting today.

As for the smaller parties, the committee will have two SNP members, and one each from the Lib Dems, the SDLP, the DUP and Plaid Cymru.

Then the real fun will start.