Nonetheless, Butler and Maudling ( who was very popular with backbench MPs at that time ) declined to push for his resignation, especially after a tide of support from Conservative activists around the country.

The chief whip, Edward Heath, canvassed the views of backbench Conservative MPs, and two senior Conservative peers, the Lord President of the Council, Lord Salisbury, and the Lord Chancellor, Lord Kilmuir, saw members of the cabinet individually to ascertain their preferences.

In the interests of impartiality the ballot was organised by the 1922 Committee, the backbench Conservative MPs.

In the autumn of 1922, Chamberlain faced a backbench revolt ( largely led by Stanley Baldwin ) designed to oust Lloyd George, and when he summoned a meeting of Conservative MPs at the Carlton Club on 19 October, a motion was passed in favour of fighting the forthcoming election as an independent party.

However, when the House of Commons debated the new Speaker, Conservative MP Robin Maxwell-Hyslop and Labour MP Willie Hamilton nominated Geoffrey de Freitas, a senior and respected backbench Labour MP.

Voting membership is limited to backbench MPs although frontbench Conservative MPs have an open invitation to attend meetings.

After the 1923 and 1924 elections the membership expanded as more new Conservative MPs were elected, and in 1926 all backbench MPs were invited to become members.

On 19 May 2010, shortly after the formation of a coalition government between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, the party leader and newly-appointed Prime Minister, David Cameron, suggested altering the 1922 Committee to include ministers ( frontbenchers ) in the decision making process, angering some backbench MPs.

An elderly backbench Conservative MP who shared the office with Alan and Piers during the first two series.

In the early 1980s he was secretary of the Conservative backbench Northern Ireland committee, during which time he showed wariness of the Rev Ian Paisley, warning his supporters that the British commitment to Ulster could be damaged by " protestant ingratitude ".

Forth refused the offer of a place in the Conservative shadow ministerial team and instead became a leading backbench irritant to the Labour government, engaging in " a Parliamentary form of guerrilla warfare ".

He had support from both the Conservative and Labour leadership, however many backbench MPs, particularly those from the Labour Party ( who held a large majority in the House at the time ), viewed Young as someone who had too recently been a member of his Party's front bench team and was thus not sufficiently in touch with ordinary MPs.

The group was a rallying point for rebellious backbench Conservative MPs during House of Commons debates over the Maastricht Treaty.

The government was also forced to cancel a planned 7 % energy tax in 1973 following protests from the Progressive Conservative backbench.

Many Conservative backbench MPs had misgivings about what was being proposed.

His attempt to target state assistance towards poorer families while freezing child benefits provoked a major rebellion by Conservative backbench MPs.

This period includes the Conservative backbench rebellion over the Maastricht treaty.

Nowlan was a Progressive Conservative backbench Member of Parliament representing a Nova Scotia riding in the Canadian House of Commons continuously from 1965 to 1993.

For six years he chaired the Conservative backbench defence committee.

Eventually, backbench Conservative MPs forced the issue by putting down an amendment to get rid of ILEA, and the government announced that it would go before the next elections ( scheduled for 1990 ).

Adley became leader of the Conservative backbench committee on transport and then the Chairman of the Commons Transport Select Committee.

He was Chairman of the Conservative backbench committee on Constitutional Affairs, and Secretary of the Conservative backbench committee on Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs.

* In 2005, David McLetchie, leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party is forced to resign after claiming the highest taxi expenses of any MSP.

David McLetchie announced his resignation as Scottish Conservative Party leader on 31 October 2005, after it was revealed he had spent £ 11, 500 of taxpayers ' money on taxi fares, more than any other MSP.

In January 2005 Grahame was reported to have had an affair with married Conservative MSP David Davidson.

Other council members include Conservative MPs Christopher Chope, Philip Davies, Robert Halfon, Philip Hollobone, Gerald Howarth, John Whittingdale, and Andrew Rosindell, Conservative MEPs Daniel Hannan and Roger Helmer, former Conservative MSP Brian Monteith, and former leader of UKIP Malcolm Pearson, Baron Pearson of Rannoch.

* Brian Monteith, former Conservative MSP

Keith William Twort Raffan, ( born 21 June 1949 ) in Aberdeen, is a former Conservative Member of Parliament and Scottish Liberal Democrat Member of the Scottish Parliament ( MSP ).

Macintosh was re-elected as MSP for Eastwood at the 2007 election with a narrow majority of 913, where he fought off a strong challenge from the Conservative Party's Jackson Carlaw.

* David McLetchie MSP, former Scottish Conservative leader

However former Conservative MSP David Mundell was successful in taking the seat from Labour, with a swing of 8. 0 %.

After leaving the Army, he became in 1999 a Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament as a list MSP for North East Scotland, before standing down in 2003.

* John Young, Conservative MSP from 1999-2003 for West of Scotland

** The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, led by Brian Mulroney, wins 211 seats in the House of Commons, forming the largest majority government in Canadian history.

* Brian Coleman, Conservative local AM for Barnet and Camden since 2000, and Mayor of Barnet from 2009 to 2010

Initially, the Reform Party was motivated by the need for democratic reforms and by profound Western Canadian discontent with the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney.

BQ founder Lucien Bouchard was a cabinet minister in the federal Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney.

The initial coalition that led to the Bloc was headed by Lucien Bouchard, who had been federal Minister of the Environment in the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney.

Martin Brian Mulroney, ( born March 20, 1939 ) was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984 to June 25, 1993, and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993.

Mike Freer became leader of the council on 11 May 2006, replacing Brian Salinger as Conservative group leader, having previously been Salinger's deputy.

He beat Conservative politician Brian Coleman at the 2012 London Assembly election overturning a 20, 000 vote deficit and turning this in to a 21, 000 vote majority.

In 1988 Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney broke with his party's economic nationalist tradition and negotiated the Free Trade Agreement ( FTA ) with the United States, which led to North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA ) in 1994.

His father, Robert Layton, was a Liberal Party activist in the 1960s and 1970s, and served as a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament ( MP ) and Cabinet minister in the 1980s under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

When Bourassa returned as Premier in 1985, he successfully persuaded the federal Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney to recognize Quebec as a distinct society, and sought greater powers for Quebec and the other provinces.

Being the first to publicly reveal the renovation costs, the high tab for Brian and Mila Mulroney's changes to the building caused political controversy, especially when some of the costs were paid for from the PC Canada Fund, which raised money from individual donations to fund the Progressive Conservative Party.

Prior to entering provincial politics, Klein considered himself a Liberal Party supporter, although he did support the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Brian Mulroney in the 1988 federal election .< ref >

Initially, the Reform Party was motivated by the need for democratic reforms and by profound Western Canadian discontent with the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney.

The party's founding occurred as the coalition of Western Prairie populists, Quebec nationalists, Ontario business leaders, and Atlantic Red Tories that made up Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservative Party began to fracture.

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada under Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney favoured devolution of powers to the provinces, culminating in the failed Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords.

He was re-elected in the 1984 election even though Brian Mulroney's, Progressive Conservative Party ( PC ) won the largest majority government in Canadian history.

Brian Parker ( Conservative )

His government was re-elected twice with reduced majorities, in the 1986 and 1989 elections, though Getty lost his own Edmonton-Whitemud seat in 1989 and had to run in a by-election in Stettler, which was vacated by Progressive Conservative victor Brian C. Downey.

Under the editorship of William Thorsell in the 1980s and 1990s, the paper strongly endorsed the free trade policies of Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

This election resulted in a landslide victory for Brian Mulroney and his Progressive Conservative Party, which won 211 out of 282 seats.

Wellingborough is home to singers Peter Murphy of Bauhaus who lived a large portion of his early life in here, and Thom Yorke of Radiohead, and politicians Alfred Dobbs, Arthur Allen ( for the Labour Party ) and Brian Binley ( for the Conservative Party ) were all born in the town.

In 1989, the Progressive Conservative government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney proposed the creation of a national sales tax of 9 %.

Among the prominent British personalities he portrayed were Eddie Waring, the famously impossible to understand rugby league commentator ; Brian Clough, the controversial football manager ; Robin Day, the then top political interviewer on the BBC ; Magnus Pyke, the eccentric TV science presenter ; Alf Garnett, the star from Till Death Us Do Part ; the fictional American detective Columbo ; Frank Spencer, the comic creation of sitcom actor Michael Crawford ; and Wilson's Conservative Party rival Ted Heath.