Eleanor Laing

Laing contested Paisley North in the 1987 general election, but was defeated by the Labour incumbent Allen Adams. In 1995, she sought selection for the Southend West seat, but was narrowly defeated in the selection process by David Amess, the sitting MP for Basildon.[3] Laing was later selected for the Epping Forest seat, when the incumbent MP Steve Norris decided to leave the House to focus on his business career.

When Laing was first elected as the MP for Epping Forest at the 1997 general election, the previously safe seat was reduced to marginal status by the Labour landslide. Before her election, she had been offered support by Malcolm Rifkind and was generally considered to be a Europhile.

Once in Parliament, she appeared to sign up to the Eurosceptic wing of the party, first supporting Michael Howard then William Hague for the Conservative leadership. Following the election, she was selected for the Education and Employment Committee, chaired by Labour's Margaret Hodge. Laing was seen as a rising star in her early career, with good performances in the Commons and strong attacks against Labour.

She was an opponent of devolution, and criticised the Blair government on many of the details of the transfer of power. In December 2000, she was appointed as opposition Scottish spokeswoman. In 2001, her constituency returned to safe seat status with a 19.8% majority. In 2005, she increased that majority to 32%. She has an interest in education, transport, economic policy, constitution and devolution.

After the 2010 general election, and the return of the Conservatives to power, Laing did not receive a post in the Government. On 16 October 2013, she was elected as the First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means, the holder of which post is one of the Deputy Speakers.[4] Laing was re-elected at the 2015 general election.[5] In January 2016, Laing publicly criticised Tulip Siddiq, who was seven months pregnant at the time, for breaking the customs of the House by leaving a debate shortly after speaking. Siddiq had already been in the debate for two hours and left at 14:30 to eat. According to witnesses, Laing told Siddiq not to use her pregnancy as an excuse for her behaviour.[6]

Laing voted to leave in the 2016 European Union membership referendum and was happy with the result.[7] Laing was re-elected at the 2017 general election and continued in her role as a deputy speaker in the 57th Parliament. Laing was re-elected at the 2019 general election which she described a "very nasty election".[8]

Laing stood in the 2019 Speaker election, to replace John Bercow, campaigning on restoring trust to the House of Commons.[9] Laing was critical of Bercow, and called his impartiality into question,[10] pledging to do things differently and bring kindness to the Speaker's chair.[11] Laing lost out to Lindsay Hoyle, but declared her intention to stand to replace him as Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.[9] She was elected by her fellow MPs, and became the first woman to be the Chairman of Ways and Means.

In June 2023 former prime minister Boris Johnson called for Bernard Jenkin to resign, after his participation in the Commons Select Committee of Privileges which investigated whether Johnson had misled parliament, when it was reported by the Guido Fawkes website that Jenkin had attended an event on 8 December 2020 in parliament. It was reportedly the date of his wife's birthday, with a "drinks party" held by Laing in her office.[12]

Laing sponsored the motion for lowering the homosexual age of consent to 16 in 1998: "Nothing that is being proposed tonight is in any way encouraging physical sexual activity among young people before they are sufficiently mature". She differed with many of her Conservative colleagues: "It is nonsense to say that there cannot be equality between 16-year-old boys and 16-year-old girls. Young people need protection, but young people are not protected by being made into criminals". She opposed fellow Conservatives such as Nicholas Winterton, who said that "a homosexual act is unnatural", by replying that the Bill did not challenge Christian teaching, and that it would not legalise anything that did not already happen.

Laing voted against the repeal of Section 28 in 2003.[13] Laing criticised the manner in which the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 was introduced by arguing "social change should come about by evolution, not by diktat from the top of government" and subsequently abstained from voting on it.[14]