Eleanor Laing

Laing was a candidate in the 2019 Speakership election, but was eliminated in the third round of voting having received fewer votes than her two competitors, Lindsay Hoyle and Chris Bryant. She was elected as Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker to Sir Lindsay Hoyle in January 2020, becoming the first woman in the role.

Laing was re-elected at the 2019 general election with an increased majority. She said it had been a "very nasty election".

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

She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's 2018 Birthday Honours.

Laing was re-elected at the 2017 general election with a reduced majority. She continued in her role as a deputy speaker in the 57th Parliament.

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.

Laing voted to leave in the 2016 European Union membership referendum and was happy with the result.

Laing was re-elected at the 2015 general election.

Laing however criticised the manner in which the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 was introduced, arguing "social change should come about by evolution, not by diktat from the top of government", and subsequently abstained from voting on it.

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.

When bishops were told to vote against an equal gay rights law in March 2007, Laing spoke in favour of the law arguing that "her brand of Christianity" preached "live and let live".

In 2007, Laing voted against MPs' expense claims being made public. In 2008 she was one of 172 MPs who voted to preserve what critics called a lax and over-generous system of Parliamentary expenses, which permits Members of Parliament to claim for expenses without producing receipts.

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.

She was a strong critic of devolution, and attacked the Blair government on many of the details of the transfer of power. In December 2000, she was appointed as opposition Scottish spokeswoman.

Laing sponsored the motion for lowering the homosexual age of consent to 16 in 1998, saying "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, saying "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 Tories such as Nicholas Winterton who said that "a homosexual act is unnatural", replying that the Bill did not challenge Christian teaching, and that it would not legalise anything which did not already happen. She did however go on to vote against the repeal of Section 28 in 2003.

When Laing was first elected as the MP for Epping Forest at the 1997 general election, the 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.

Laing contested Paisley North in the 1987 general election, but was defeated by the Labour incumbent Allen Adams. In 1995, she applied for the Southend West seat, but was defeated in the selection process by David Amess, the sitting MP for Basildon. Laing was later selected for the Epping Forest seat.

Dame Eleanor Fulton Laing, DBE (née Pritchard, born 1 February 1958) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Epping Forest constituency since 1997. A member of the Conservative Party, fellow MPs elected her as a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons in 2013, replacing Nigel Evans.