backbench

1. A bench at the back of a room or seating area.Examples: "His spacious quarters indicate his transition from backbench upstart to established member of the governing team."; "There was no separate back-bench organization ; indeed there were no back-bench caucuses in any Nigerian Legislative House, and any attempt to create one would probably have been regarded by the leadership concerned as a subversive move."; "Both Thatcher's and Major's PPSs developed the role of trying to see that those members considered loyal to the leadership won the main positions on backbench party committees."New-ZealandUKattributiveoften

2. (newspaper, publishing) A group of top-level journalists who jointly review submissions and decide on the layout and emphasis of the newspaper.Examples: "A good spread could be allotted on a news page if the dead person was deemed worthy by the powerful and sceptical members of the “backbench” of the senior sub-editors."; "The attitude of the Observer backbench when I filed the story the following sunday showed how happy my sub-editing colleagues from the previous winter were with my feat."; "After his copy had dropped, MacKenzie had gone over to the backbench and instructed them: 'Don't change a word of this. Then if he's got it wrong the little fucker won't be able to wriggle out of this one!'"