A Parliamentary committee has raised further questions over Trevor Phillips’ leadership of the equality watchdog.

The joint committee on human rights said the government’s decision to reappoint Phillips as chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) without open competition or parliamentary scrutiny “could undermine the perceived independence of the commission”.

Phillips, a former Labour London Assembly member and broadcaster, has been the subject of repeated criticism over his chairmanship, with six resignations among EHRC commissioners and questions of conflict over his involvement with a private consultancy firm.

The panel of MPs and peers complained that although Phillips has now ended his relationship with Equate, it took him “some time… to take the action necessary to address the perception of a conflict of interest”.

There have also been serious questions over the setting-up of the commission, which came about from the merger of several existing bodies and led to some staff being made redundant but then rehired on lucrative consultancy contracts.

The human rights committee conceded that establishing the commission by merging other watchdogs in 2007 and developing a "strong corporate board" had been a challenging task, but added: "We conclude that in the early years of the EHRC's existence this was not done successfully, for which the chair must bear responsibility."

Committee chair Andrew Dismore said there were “serious questions” over Phillips’ leadership. “We were disappointed to hear about perceived conflicts between Mr Phillips and a number of commissioners, well respected in their fields, who resigned,” the Labour MP added.

"The lack of a cohesive board has undoubtedly impacted on the EHRC's work."

But a spokesman for the HRC said the board had already been strengthened. “We have a new, stronger board working positively together. We also have significant human rights achievements to our name - for example, the protection of people in care homes and the legal case we took to ensure that our military personnel were given adequate protection when serving overseas," the spokesman said.