CHRISTCHURCH MP Chris Chope introduced 47 bills into the House of Commons in a move that another MP has branded an “abuse of the system”.

He and Conservative colleague Peter Bone presented 73 bills to parliament after sleeping there for three nights to be at the front of the queue.

The "presentation bills" stand almost no chance of becoming law, but Mr Chope has insisted they raise ideas that could be in a future Tory manifesto.

Labour MP Paul Flynn has accused the two Conservatives of “abusing the system” and taking up the time that could be used to debate important bills that could become law.

And Labour's Frank Field, who was presenting a bill to give school children free meals and activities in the summer holidays, said in the Commons that children were at the "back of the queue" in parliament.

Some of Mr Chope’s bills relate to current local issues. One would prevent councils such as Christchurch’s being abolished without the approval of their members and a local referendum.

Another would require referendums on “transformation plans” such as the one that proposes the merger of Bournemouth and Poole hospital trusts.

Others propose national policies such as privatising the BBC and scrapping the provisions of the EU’s Working Time Directive.

The names of all the bills had to be read out in Parliament.

But the Commons’ deputy speaker, Dame Rosie Winterton, sought to save time by not having the clerks announce out loud the dates on which they will be called for a second reading.

"To save time and to get on with the main business, I will accept private notice of the dates of Second Reading for bills on the order paper where multiple bills have been tabled by the same member,” she said.

Nineteen of Mr Chope’s bills will have their second reading on October 20, with the rest scheduled for a series of dates between November 23 and July 6.