Backbench
Origin
From back + bench.
Alternative forms
Full definition of backbench
Noun
backbench
(plural backbenches)- (politics, UK, NZ, often attributive) In a house of legislature following the model of the Westminster system (such as the UK House of Commons), any bench behind either of the front benches and occupied by rank-and-file members.His spacious quarters indicate his transition from backbench upstart to established member of the governing team.
- 1963, Richard L. Sklar, Nigerian Political Parties: Power in an Emergent African Nation, 2004, backbenches%22&hl=en&ei=rQTGTr3yCu_4mAW685gh&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22%22backbench|backbenches%22&f=false page 400,There was no separate back-bench organization ; indeed there were no back-bench caucuses in any Nigerian Legislative House, and any attempt to create one would probably have been regarded by the leadership concerned as a subversive move.
- 1995, R. L. Borthwick, Churchill to Major: The British Prime Ministership Since 1945, backbenches%22&hl=en&ei=AvvFTpHNDqediAf0s5DrDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22%22backbench|backbenches%22&f=false page 153,Both Thatcher's and Major's PPSs developed the role of trying to see that those members considered loyal to the leadership won the main positions on backbench party committees.
- 1997, David Campbell Docherty, Mr. Smith Goes to Ottawa: Life in the House of Commons,In fall 1984, Brian Mulroney led a cabinet with far more political experience than the Conservative backbench.
- 2009, John Coakley, Michael Gallagher, Politics in the Republic of Ireland, backbenches%22&hl=en&ei=rQTGTr3yCu_4mAW685gh&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22%22backbench|backbenches%22&f=false page 301,In situations of low ministerial turnover and increased professionalisation of politics, with most Teachta Dálas regarding politics as a career, Taoisigh could find that impatience on the backbenches leads to calls for leadership turnover to effect promotions.