2 October 2013
The race for the vacant Tory Deputy Speakership at the Commons is coming to a boil. Epping Forest’s Eleanor Laing is being talked of as a likely prospect, not least because she is said to have a Labour MP, Chris Bryant, running her campaign. There is another factor playing to Laing’s advantage. She is a notoriously verbose orator. It is not lost on MPs that Deputy Speakers have to take a vow of silence and can never make backbench speeches in the Commons. “The thought of never having to listen to another Eleanor speech is enough to make me vote for her,” jokes one parliamentarian.