Laing stood in the 2019 Speaker election, to replace John Bercow, campaigning on restoring trust to the House of Commons. Laing was critical of Bercow, and called his impartiality into question, pledging to do things differently and bring kindness to the Speaker's chair. Laing lost out to Lindsay Hoyle, but declared her intention to stand to replace him as Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. She was elected by her fellow MPs, and became the first woman to be the Chairman of Ways and Means.