According to 24dash.com, the backbench Tory MP who today helped to derail a Private Member’s Bill aimed at criminalising so-called ‘revenge evictions’ in the private rented sector (PRS) is himself a private landlord.

It has since transpired that Davies is himself a PRS landlord.

Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather, the sponsor of the Tenancies (Reform) Bill, said: “I’m obviously extremely disappointed with today’s outcome. I’m hugely grateful for the many colleagues from different parties who came to support the bill and who pleaded with the two back benchers concerned to let the bill proceed.

“I now need the government to use the opportunity of the consumer rights bill, which is currently in the lords, to table the provisions they have publically said they support.

“Vulnerable tenants living in poor conditions should not be forced to wait any longer because of a procedural device on the House of Commons.”

As part of his effort to destroy the Bill, Davies quoted at length from the Conservative Party’s 1987 manifesto, before moving on to quote vast tracts from the DCLG’s select committee’s minutes and from the Department’s guidance.

The MP then said “the English Housing survey is a good place from which to get good statistics for this debate”, before reeling off figure after figure.

Despite other MPs attempting to get Davies to sit down, the deputy speaker, Dawn Primarolo, allowed him to carry on, saying “whether a contribution in the house is in order or not is measured not by time but by whether it is considered a repeated point or argument. It is the content of the speech not its length that is the measure. He has made his point so perhaps he will move onto another.”

However, Primarolo eventually tired of the MP and told him to stop. She said: “Order. Okay, Mr Davies, under Standing Order No. 42, a Member may be called to order for ‘tedious repetition either of his own arguments or of the arguments used by other Members’.

“That is now what is happening with regard to the reference to evictions in the Bill. The Member has been speaking for nearly an hour. I am directing the Member to make his closing remarks now. Otherwise, I will require him to take his seat so that we can hear from the other Members who wish to participate in the debate. Is that clear?”

But no sooner had Davies been shutdown than his colleague Chope took up the mantle.

The Bill, which had cross-party support, including Tories Liam Fox, Nick Boles and Housing Minister Brandon Lewis, ran out of time after only 60 MPs voted on a procedural motion to put it to a vote. 100 MPs are required for such a motion to succeed. It now drops to the bottom of the order for Private Members’ Bills and has no chance of proceeding.