Stephen Dorrell, MP for Charnwood, chairs the influential health select committee of the House Of Commons. He was previously Health Secretary at the tail end of the Major government 1995-7.
He has won cross-party respect for his rigorous and independent chairing of the committee, which he assumed last May.
He is also widely viewed among policy experts as one of the best-informed former health secretaries, who has retained a strong awareness of the brief.