EPPING Forest MP Eleanor Laing has proposed a new bank holiday to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta.

In the House of Commons yesterday (August 7), the Conservative MP proposed a 10 minute rule bill to create a bank holiday on June 15, 2015.

Ten minute rule bills rarely reach the reading stage and are generally used by MPs to draw attention to an issue.

The Magna Carta guaranteed basic freedoms and property rights and established that no individual is above the law.

Ms Laing said: “Is it too much to ask that the people of our country should be given the opportunity to mark this unique anniversary - just once a century?

“Today we need to rein in the power of an overbearing nanny state just as much as our forebears of the 13th Century had to restrain the power of the king."

The bill was given an unopposed first reading and a second reading is earmarked for November 25.

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