backstairs influence

backstairs influence

Influence from an ignoble source, typically one that is secret. Where did that idea come from? It's like someone has backstairs influence over you all of sudden!
See also: influence
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • under the influence
  • have/keep somebody on a string
  • under the influence of alcohol
  • in the pocket of (someone)
  • control over
  • control over (someone or something)
  • lose (one's) hold over (someone or something)
  • old pals act
  • the old pals act
  • lobby against
References in classic literature
Was there a motive at work under this strange reluctance of Arthur's which had a sort of backstairs influence, not admitted to himself?
He underrates (for instance) the Immigration Reform Group, which exercised so powerful a backstairs influence as Menzies' reign drew to a close.
As regards political strategy, an emphasis always present in Marx's thought, but more explicitly formulated by Lenin, was that a social group or a party is generally impotent if it confines itself either to general propaganda of ideas or to being a sect of theorists or experts that tries to pull off some plan of social regeneration by palace intrigue or backstairs influence. Lenin once said in answer to romantic revolutionaries: "We do not need hysterical outbursts: we need the regular march of the iron battalions of the proletariat." A political program could only become an historical influence if it ran with the stream of some extant social movement, resting basically on the self-movement of a class.
it can be assumed in the light of the editors' exhaustive research that virtually all of the identifiable ties have now been tracked down; and as a result it should be possible to say much more than has been possible in the past about the operation of backstairs influence in Parliament.
Any such attempt is met by silence or indifference on the part of the secular media." But the British bishops have had backstairs influence, he claimed.
They also added Irfan and his other family members have illegally encroached on the houses of Mission Hospital and also using police backstairs influences.