Duncan Smith was re-elected comfortably in Chingford and Woodford Green at the 2005 general election, almost doubling his majority, and remained a backbencher for the Conservative Party.

As a backbencher he was openly critical of Duncan Smith's leadership, declaring that he was about as likely to " meet an Eskimo in the desert " as Duncan Smith was to win the next general election.

Gair was a backbencher for ten years during the William Forgan Smith government before being appointed as Secretary for Mines under the elderly Frank Cooper in 1942.

In parliament, Smith was a relatively low-profile backbencher, and frequently clashed with the Liberal member for the corresponding federal electorate, the popular Joanna Gash.

Initially he remained a backbencher in the Legislative Assembly for the Labour Front ( the largest party in the assembly at the time ), but he left the party in 1957 and founded the Worker's Party of Singapore.

Such was the state of public fury that it appeared possible for several days afterwards that the Chamberlain government might fall due to a backbencher rebellion.

Keating was a backbencher for most of the period of the Whitlam Government ( December 1972 – November 1975 ).

He was elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1913 for the district of Granville, serving as a backbencher in the Labor Party government led by William Holman.

He was a backbencher for his first two years in Parliament.

Thatcher wanted to make Redwood a Junior Minister straight away after the election, but David Waddington, then Chief Whip, told her that he needed experience as an MP and backbencher first, where he remained for the next two years.

A backbencher may be a new parliamentary member yet to receive high office, a senior figure dropped from government, or someone who for whatever reason is not chosen to sit either in the ministry or the opposition Shadow Ministry.

Forbes remained a backbencher for some time, but became the Liberal Party's Whip when party leader Thomas MacKenzie became Prime Minister in March 1912.

politicians from Alberta to be crowded, and the life of a backbencher held little appeal for him.

Colley's work as a backbencher was rewarded by his appointment as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Lands in October 1964.

Ahern became a backbencher for the entire duration of the Fianna Fáil-Labour Party government.

Under William Hague he became shadow Secretary of State for Education and Employment, but left the shadow cabinet in 1998, and has remained a backbencher since.

From then until the 2005 general election he remained a backbencher, though he made a failed bid to become Labour's candidate in the 2004 election for Mayor of London.

Butterfill has remained a backbencher for the entirety of his parliamentary career, he was however the Parliamentary Private Secretary PPS to the Secretary of State for Energy Cecil Parkinson in 1988, he remained Parkinson's PPS when he became the Secretary of State for Transport in 1989.

Peter Riddell of the Times suggested that A View From the Foothills deserved to become " the central text for understanding the Blair years ", while Decline & Fall, in which Mullin ( by then a backbencher again ) expressed wry consternation at the way the government operated under Blair's successor Gordon Brown, were commended for their independence of outlook, revealing, as Jenni Russell put it in the Sunday Times, Mullin's " readiness to like people who don't echo his politics ".

He was often mentioned as a candidate for backbencher of the year and is widely respected in the Westminster media circuit.

Davis was first elected as the MPP for Peel in the 1959 provincial election where he was a backbencher in Leslie Frost's government.

Connarty has spent his parliamentary career as a backbencher and since 1998 has been a member of the European Scrutiny Select Committee, which is the committee responsible for scrutinising the legislation set by the European Parliament.

She was succeeded by then Justice Minister Michael McDowell after Tom Parlon and backbencher Liz O ' Donnell nominated him.

He had refused an offer to run for the resurgent Fine Gael party and become an " insignificant backbencher ", and was determined instead to stand as an Independent candidate, declaring: " I think you're going to see in this election a huge number of similar independents who want to put an end to cronyism, who want to see a change in the political system, who want to put an end to Civil War politics in Ireland, who want to see an end to the kind of tribal politics we ’ ve got, who are going to stand in the election as well ".

" In March 1952, a poorly prepared ( and possibly inebriated ) Bevan came off the worse in an evening Commons debate on health with Conservative backbencher Iain Macleod: Macleod's performance led Churchill to appoint him Minister of Health some six weeks after his debate with Bevan.

He sat as a backbencher in Bill Davis's Progressive Conservative government from 1981 to 1985.

He won a convincing victory over incumbent Progressive Conservative incumbent Dorothy Dobbie in the 1993 federal election, and entered parliament as a government backbencher.

With the party now clearly marginalised as the third party on the fringe, with few distinct domestic policies, with a parliamentary party that was primarily a collection of individuals elected as much for themselves as for their party, and with the separate Liberal Nationals offering competition amongst Liberal inclined voters, Sinclair fought to make the Liberals once more a relevant force in British politics, taking up the issues of opposition to the continental dictatorships and working closely with Winston Churchill who was a backbencher at that time and generally shunned by his Conservative Party.

In July 2007 he became a backbencher following 13 years ' continuous service on the Conservative Front Bench.

He was the Liberal Democrat Spokesman on Culture, Media and Sport from 2002 to 2005, but was succeeded by Don Foster and was a member of the Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence team until the formation of the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Government on 11 May 2010, at which point he became a backbencher.

Preparing to respond, he was interrupted by an angry Conservative backbencher, Leo Amery, who exclaimed " Speak for England, Arthur!

" Maxwell Fyfe told the Conservative backbencher Sir Robert Boothby that it was not his intention to legalise homosexuality: " I am not going down in history ", he told Boothby, " as the man who made sodomy legal "

Conservative backbencher Douglas Carswell said that if it were confirmed that Martin had authorised the raid, which some say breached Parliamentary privilege, he would be demanding his resignation.

A moderate, DeFaria remained a backbencher during the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris.

He also rejected overtures from Neil Stanley Crawford to run for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta as a Progressive Conservative, commenting later that he had little interest in sitting as a backbencher after serving as mayor of Edmonton, and that Premier Peter Lougheed had not been prepared to promise him a cabinet position.

The Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament ( MP ) for Chicoutimi, Quebec remained a backbencher until January 1993 when he became parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Mulroney.

Lane was a government backbencher until 1985, when the Progressive Conservative ministry led by Frank Miller was defeated in the legislature.

Collins, a Conservative, was elected by acclamation and sat as a government backbencher.

As a Progressive Conservative backbencher in the Canadian House of Commons, Oostrom was a social conservative, opposing abortion and favouring capital punishment and a hard law and order stance.

He was a backbencher throughout the period of Conservative governments from 1951 – 1964.

He supported the Conservative administration of Hugh John Macdonald and Rodmond Palen Roblin, and sat as a government backbencher in the legislature which followed.