In reply to mondite:
> The non tory members of the committee would have opposed him on principle since a)the PM was breaching the rule that they should select it and b)they were a tad suspicious if selected his job was to bury all the info so it only need the one tory to go "hey i will stand against him" .
> He must either be personally really popular with the tory leaders since how else did he last so long otherwise or he has some really good blackmail material.
> The flaw with the latter is I just dont see it as likely that the one thing he can do well is blackmail.
Oddly, this would have been a complete non story if the winner of the election of the chair didnt have the whip removed; he was demonstrably the best candidate given his previous experience, having unanimous support from the other committee members (apart from the tory members who were voting for Grayling as instructed). For the non tories, the election was fairly free, as the only 2 candidates were tory.