0 a member of the UK parliament who does not have any official position in the government or in one of the opposing parties:
1 a student who does not work hard or is not successful
The effort was to find a compromise formula that would be palatable to the backbenchers.
They sneaked it in because they knew that they were under pressure from their backbenchers.
There are still some backbenchers left who have important matters to raise and whose constituents expect them to raise them.
If all those offered the prospect of office in the near future were to receive it, there would be no backbenchers left.
Our work, as ordinary backbenchers, may be richly rewarded, but it is certainly one of the worst paid of the high vocations in the country.
The motion refers to "inhibiting the rights of backbenchers".
I cannot accept that if the statement had been made earlier in the day, inconvenience to backbenchers would have been avoided.
Today, we have had taken away one hour of the time that backbenchers should have had to discuss a very important matter.
