The following article is a list of government defeats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom since 1945; that is, where the government whips have instructed their MPs to vote (or, in rare circumstances, abstain from voting) a certain way on a division of the House and have subsequently been defeated. Whilst most defeats have been on motions or bills scheduled in "government time", on occasion motions proposed by opposition parties or backbench MPs that are critical of government policy or practice, such as opposition day motions, are passed despite the government's efforts.
Most government defeats since World War II have occurred in periods of minority government or where the government has a small majority. Government defeats have been caused by backbench rebellions and by opposition parties voting against a government when they had more MPs present in the House of Commons. Earlier (1918–1945) large (of a margin of more than 100) defeats of governments were for the first MacDonald government, which suffered defeats by a margin of 166 on 8 October 1924 on the Campbell case, and by a margin of 140 in June 1924. [1]
Attlee led two ministries: the first Attlee ministry (1945–1950) and the second Attlee ministry (1950–1951).
These defeats were under the second Attlee ministry, when the Labour Party saw its majority reduced from 146 to 5 seats in the 1950 election.
Anthony Eden's Government suffered no defeats in the House of Commons. [2]
Harold Macmillan's Government suffered no defeats in the House of Commons. [2]
Alec Douglas-Home's short-lived Government suffered no defeats in the House of Commons. [2]
Edward Heath's government suffered six defeats in the House of Commons during its four years in office.
Harold Wilson's second government suffered 25 defeats in the House of Commons between 1974 and 1976. The majority of these defeats, 18 in total, occurred in June and July 1974, when Wilson did not have a majority in the House of Commons after the February 1974 general election produced a hung parliament. Wilson called a further general election in October 1974 in an attempt to gain a majority. He did, but this majority was just three seats.
Jim Callaghan's government suffered 34 defeats in the House of Commons during its three years in office. Callaghan's government was a minority one for virtually all of its existence, after the former cabinet minister John Stonehouse resigned from the Labour Party just two days after Callaghan became Prime Minister, leaving Labour one seat short of an overall majority in the House of Commons.
During her 11 years in office, Margaret Thatcher's government suffered four House of Commons defeats.
John Major's government suffered six defeats in the House of Commons during its seven-year tenure.
Tony Blair's government suffered four House of Commons defeats during its 10 years in office, all within a period of one year and after the 2005 general election.
Gordon Brown's government suffered three defeats in the House of Commons during its three years in office.
David Cameron's coalition government was defeated seven times in the House of Commons.
David Cameron's majority government was defeated three times in the House of Commons.
Theresa May's brief majority government from 2016 to 2017 was not defeated in the House of Commons.
Theresa May's government from 2017 to 2019 was defeated on 33 divisions in the House of Commons. Furthermore, to prevent recorded defeats, May's government typically whipped to abstain on non-binding Opposition Day motions it did not envisage winning on division. [92] [ failed verification ]
In addition, three humble addresses were passed without division. Unlike Opposition Day motions, these are binding.
Boris Johnson's government from July 2019 until the general election in December was defeated on 12 divisions in the House of Commons. It lost its working majority on its first sitting day of Parliament and was defeated on its very first division. Johnson became the first Prime Minister this happened to since Lord Rosebery in 1894. [122] The government did not win a single division until 15 October, six weeks after Parliament's first sitting. [123]
Boris Johnson's second government was defeated four times in the House of Commons.
Liz Truss's government suffered no defeats in the House of Commons.
Keir Starmer's government has yet to suffer any defeats in the House of Commons.
Dominic Charles Roberts Grieve is a British barrister and former politician who served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2008 to 2009 and Attorney General for England and Wales from 2010 to 2014. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Beaconsfield from 1997 to 2019 and was the Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee from 2015 to 2019.
The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000 (c.44) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It set the age of consent for male homosexual sexual activities and for heterosexual anal sex at 16, which had long been the age of consent for all other types of sexual activities, such as vaginal sex or lesbian sex. As such, it made the age of consent for all types of sexual acts equal, without discrimimating on the basis of the type of act or of the sexes of those involved in the act. It also introduced the new offence of 'having sexual intercourse or engaging in any other sexual activity with a person under 18 if in a position of trust in relation to that person'.
The Abortion Act 1967 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that legalised abortion in Great Britain on certain grounds by registered practitioners, and regulated the tax-paid provision of such medical practices through the National Health Service (NHS).
An Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom is primary legislation passed by the UK Parliament in Westminster, London.
In the United Kingdom, confidence motions are a means of testing the support of the government (executive) in a legislative body, and for the legislature to remove the government from office. A confidence motion may take the form of either a vote of confidence, usually put forward by the government, or a vote of no confidence, usually proposed by the opposition. When such a motion is put to a vote in the legislature, if a vote of confidence is defeated, or a vote of no confidence is passed, then the incumbent government must resign, or call a general election.
The 1993 confidence motion in the second Major ministry was an explicit confidence motion in the Conservative government of John Major. It was proposed in order to ensure support in the British Parliament for the passing of the Maastricht Treaty. Due to previous defeats caused when Eurosceptic Conservative MPs voted with the opposition, the Government had to obtain support for its policy on the Social Chapter before the European Communities Amendment Act 1993 could come into effect and allow the United Kingdom to ratify the treaty. Dissenting Conservative MPs were willing to vote against the Government, but had to come into line on a confidence motion or else lose the Conservative whip. Only one eurosceptic MP was deliberately absent; and as a result, the motion passed by 40 votes and the United Kingdom ratified the Maastricht Treaty.
The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (FTPA) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which, for the first time, set in legislation a default fixed election date for general elections in the United Kingdom. It remained in force until 2022, when it was repealed. Since then, as before its passage, elections are required by law to be held at least once every five years, but can be called earlier if the prime minister advises the monarch to exercise the royal prerogative to do so. Prime ministers have often employed this mechanism to call an election before the end of their five-year term, sometimes fairly early in it. Critics have said this gives an unfair advantage to the incumbent prime minister, allowing them to call a general election at a time that suits them electorally. While it was in force, the FTPA removed this longstanding power of the prime minister.
The European Union Act 2011, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, requiring a referendum be held on amendments of the Treaty on European Union or the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to repeal the European Communities Act 1972, and for parliamentary approval to be required for any withdrawal agreement negotiated between the Government of the United Kingdom and the European Union. Initially proposed as the Great Repeal Bill, its passage through both Houses of Parliament was completed on 20 June 2018 and it became law by Royal Assent on 26 June.
The European Union Act 2017 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to empower the Prime Minister to give to the Council of the European Union the formal notice – required by Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union – for starting negotiations for the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. It was passed following the result of the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum held on 23 June in which 51.9% of voters voted to leave the European Union.
In British parliamentary procedure, a humble address is a communication from one of the houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to the monarch. For example, following the speech from the throne opening a session of parliament, each house will debate the contents of the speech under a motion for a humble address thanking the King for the speech.
The European Union Act 2020 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that makes legal provision for ratifying the Brexit withdrawal agreement and incorporating it into the domestic law of the United Kingdom. It is the most significant constitutional piece of legislation to be passed by Parliament of the Second Johnson ministry. The Withdrawal Agreement was the result of Brexit negotiations.
Parliamentary votes on Brexit, sometimes referred to as "meaningful votes", were the parliamentary votes under the terms of Section 13 of the United Kingdom's European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which requires the government of the United Kingdom to bring forward an amendable parliamentary motion at the end of the Article 50 negotiations between the government and the European Union in order to ratify the Brexit withdrawal agreement.
The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2019, commonly referred to as the Cooper–Letwin Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made provisions for extensions to the period defined under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union related to the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. It was introduced to the House of Commons by Labour MP Yvette Cooper and Conservative MP Sir Oliver Letwin on 3 April 2019, in an unusual process where the Government of the United Kingdom did not have control over Commons business that day.
The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2019, informally referred to as the Benn Act, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that required the Prime Minister of the UK to seek an extension to the Brexit withdrawal date—then scheduled for 31 October 2019—in certain circumstances. The main provisions of the Act were triggered if the House of Commons did not give its consent to either a withdrawal agreement or leaving without a deal by 19 October 2019. The Act proposed a new withdrawal date of 31 January 2020, which the Prime Minister accepted if the proposal was accepted by the European Council.
On 28 August 2019, the Parliament of the United Kingdom was ordered to be prorogued by Queen Elizabeth II on the advice of the Conservative prime minister, Boris Johnson – advice which was later ruled unlawful. The prorogation, or suspension, of Parliament was to be effective from some point between 9 and 12 September 2019 and would last until the State Opening of Parliament on 14 October 2019. As a consequence, Parliament was suspended between 10 September and 24 September 2019. Since Parliament was to be prorogued for five weeks and reconvene just 17 days before the United Kingdom's scheduled departure from the European Union on 31 October 2019, the move was seen by many opposition politicians and political commentators as a controversial and unconstitutional attempt by the prime minister to avoid parliamentary scrutiny of the Government's Brexit plans in the final weeks leading up to Brexit. Johnson and his Government defended the prorogation of Parliament as a routine political process that ordinarily follows the selection of a new prime minister and would allow the Government to refocus on a legislative agenda.
The United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed in December 2020. Its purpose is to prevent internal trade barriers within the UK, and to restrict the legislative powers of the devolved administrations in economic matters. It is one of several pieces of legislation concerning trade that were passed following the European Union membership referendum, as after Brexit the UK is no longer directly subject to EU law.
The European Union Act 2020 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that implements the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement agreed between the United Kingdom and the European Union and Euratom in December 2020. The bill for the Act was introduced to the House of Commons by Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove on 30 December 2020, with the aim of enacting the bill on the same day.
The Trade Act 2021 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to make provision about the implementation of international trade agreements. It was introduced to the House of Commons on 19 March 2020 by the Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss, and introduced to the House of Lords on 21 July 2020 by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel. It received royal assent on 29 April 2021.