How to Use backbench in a Sentence

backbench

noun

• His handpicked successor lost a primary this year to a backbench freshman state delegate.
  — Erin Cox, Washington Post, 14 Nov. 2022
• Now a backbench lawmaker, Abbott is among the most vocal critics of a clean energy target.
  — Perry Williams, Bloomberg.com, 14 June 2017
• Johnson reportedly came under fire at a meeting of backbench MPs for ejecting the rebels.
  — Adam Rasmi, Quartz, 4 Sep. 2019
• Hunt said he was offered another job in the administration but decided to return to the backbenches.
  — Karla Adam, BostonGlobe.com, 24 July 2019
• That is true, and adding in budget payments and free movement will surely prompt further cabinet resignations and backbench rebellions.
  — The Economist, 12 July 2018
• Seeing no chairs open, General Dunford headed for the backbenches, according to two people who were there.
  — Mark Landler, New York Times, 2 Apr. 2017
• While neither study has been officially released to the general public, backbench lawmakers from all parties have been allowed to view them in a locked reading room.
  — Bloomberg.com, 6 Mar. 2018
• May now returns to the backbenches of Parliament as an ordinary and not very influential lawmaker.
  — Karla Adam, BostonGlobe.com, 24 July 2019
• The last 10 years have been generally brutal for the Democratic Party’s backbench.
  — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 10 Mar. 2020
• Tom Tugendhat, 49, is largely known as an outspoken backbench lawmaker and critic of Johnson.
  — Adela Suliman, Washington Post, 7 July 2022
• The likeliest outcome is that Gianforte will come to Washington and then recede into the backbenches of Congress -- never to be heard from again.
  — Chris Cillizza, CNN, 26 May 2017
• Mr Netanyahu intends to be in that race as leader of his right-wing Likud party, despite his weakening position and murmurings of rebellion on his backbenches.
  — The Economist, 21 Nov. 2019
• As a backbench member of the minority party in the House, O’Rourke was not particularly influential.
  — Matthew Yglesias, Vox, 26 June 2019
• The process will likely take several weeks, determined by a timetable set by the 1922 Committee, which represents backbench lawmakers who are not on the government payroll.
  — Alexander Smith, NBC News, 9 July 2022
• The loss of two senior ministers and the anger among Brexit-supporting backbench lawmakers makes May’s position as leader increasingly tenuous.
  — Washington Post, 9 July 2018
• The governing Liberal-National coalition, meanwhile, faces regular backbench calls to publicly fund new coal generation and export projects.
  — David Fickling | Bloomberg, Washington Post, 19 May 2019
• The prime minister is under pressure, especially after a big backbench Tory revolt on December 1st against his new covid-19 tier system.
  — The Economist, 5 Dec. 2020
• Johnson’s fate lies in the hands of his backbench MPs, 15% of whom — 54 MPs — can trigger a vote on his leadership by submitting letters of no confidence.
  — Time, 17 Jan. 2022
• May has expressed her intention to return to the Conservative backbenches when her eventful and frequently agonizing residence in Downing Street comes to an end.
  — Rob Picheta, CNN, 17 July 2019
• The package balanced his need to prevent another upsurge in the virus with a desire to avoid antagonizing 70 of his Conservative backbench lawmakers who have threatened to rebel over lockdown measures.
  — Mark Landler, New York Times, 23 Nov. 2020
• Labour’s leadership team has proposed similar amendments, and McDonnell suggested the party may get behind the Tory backbench proposals.
  — Bloomberg.com, 8 Mar. 2018
• And until now, the total number of letters has only been known by one man, Graham Brady, chairman of a group called the 1922 Committee, which represents backbench Conservative lawmakers.
  — Alexander Smith, NBC News, 6 June 2022
• Corbyn, who spent his entire career as a backbench gadfly until unexpectedly winning a party leadership election in 2015, was criticized for silencing critics within the party and failing to root out anti-Semitism among his supporters.
  — Washington Post, 13 Dec. 2019
• With his Liberal-National coalition’s ratings trailing Labor, Turnbull was under pressure to sell a strong economic narrative before rumblings over his leadership from discontented lawmakers in his backbench grew any louder.
  — Jason Scott, Bloomberg.com, 9 May 2017