This is a list of successful votes of no confidence in British governments led by prime ministers of the former Kingdom of Great Britain and the current United Kingdom. The first motion of no confidence to defeat a ministry was in 1742 against the Whig government of Robert Walpole, who is generally regarded as the de facto first prime minister. Since then, there have been 24 successful votes of confidence motioned against British governments. The most recent was held against the Labour government of James Callaghan in March 1979, after which Callaghan was forced to hold a general election by May and was defeated by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party.
Prior to the vote in 1979, the last successful vote of no confidence in a British government occurred in 1924, marking the lengthiest interval between such occurrences in British parliamentary history.
Defeat of the Walpole ministry (1742)
The 1742 vote of no confidence in the government of Robert Walpole was the first time that a prime minister of Great Britain resigned after a vote of no confidence by the House of Commons. Walpole is regarded as the first British prime minister, although this was not an official position until the early twentieth century. He had been continually in office since April 1721 and relied for the continuance of his government on the confidence of the King as well as that of Parliament.
As early as 1739, Walpole told the House of Commons that the ministry should be accountable to the Parliament. During the following years, the support for the government in the House of Commons decreased gradually. In January 1742, the government introduced in a petition against the return of two members of parliament for Chippenham in recently held by-elections. The petition was defeated in the House of Commons by a vote of 235 to 236 on 28 January.
Walpole saw this defeat as the loss of Parliament's confidence in his ministry. As a result, he submitted his resignation as First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer on 11 February and was replaced by Lord Wilmington. Walpole had been created Earl of Orford by King George II on 6 February and left the House of Commons. However, the principle of cabinet collective responsibility had not been established and the other members of the Walpole ministry remained in office.
Defeat of the North ministry (1782)
The 1782 vote of no confidence in the government of Lord North was the first time that a British Cabinet was forced to resign after a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons. Frederick North, Lord North became Prime Minister in January 1770. After the defeat of the British troops in the Siege of Yorktown, Henry Seymour Conway, a Whig MP, introduced into Parliament a motion to end "the further prosecution of offensive warfare" in America. The motion was passed in the House of Commons by a vote of 234 to 215 on 27 February. The vote symbolised the loss of King George III's support in Parliament for the war, as well as the loss of Parliament's confidence in the North government. Feeling unable to hold his office any longer, North submitted his resignation on 22 March and his Cabinet resigned with him. This was the first time that the Cabinet took collective responsibility and resigned after the loss of support in the Parliament. The King then asked Lord Rockingham to form a government.
Defeat of the Pitt ministry (1784)
The 1784 vote of no confidence in the government of William Pitt the Younger occurred in February 1784.
William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister in December 1783. He enjoyed the support of King George III but was opposed and attacked by Charles James Fox and the Whigs in Parliament. On 2 February, Thomas Coke, a Whig MP, proposed in the House of Commons a motion that the "continuance of the ministers in office" is an obstacle to an "efficient, united and extended administration" of the country. The motion was carried by a vote of 223 to 204.
Pitt, however, refused to follow the precedent to resign. He retained the support of the King and received the support of the House of Lords. Longing to force the government to resign, Fox proposed a motion for an address for the removal of ministers on 1 March which was passed by a vote of 201 to 189, and a further and more strongly worded motion on 8 March which was passed by 191 to 190. Fox thereafter declined to push motions, as his base continued to crumble. Despite these series of defeats in the House of Commons, Pitt resolutely remained in office, watching the Opposition's majority shrink.
Pitt, meanwhile, decided to go to the country and advised the King to dissolve the Parliament, which the King did on 25 March. The ensuing election left Pitt's government a safe majority in the House of Commons. This was the first time that a prime minister avoided resignation by asking for a dissolution of Parliament and created an important precedent for future political practices.
Defeat of the Wellington–Peel ministry (1830)
The 1830 vote of no confidence in the government of the Duke of Wellington occurred in November 1830 when a government motion over a financial question was defeated in the House of Commons.
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in January 1828. By late 1830, the support for his government in Parliament was crumbling: the government's policy of Catholic emancipation (via the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829) split the Tory Party, and the political and popular pressure for parliamentary reform grew rapidly against the government's will.
On 15 November 1830, Chancellor of the Exchequer Henry Goulburn proposed a motion in the House of Commons that the House go into a committee to consider the Civil List for 1831. Sir Henry Parnell, Bt, a Whig MP, proposed conversely an inquiry into the details of the Civil List before it went into the committee. The original motion of the Chancellor was then vetoed by a vote of 204 to 233 in the House. Surprised by the unexpected defeat, Wellington submitted his resignation on the next day. King William IV invited Whig leader Lord Grey to form a government which was to propose the Great Reform Act 1832.
First defeat of the Peel ministry (1835)
The 1835 vote of no confidence in the government of Robert Peel occurred in April 1835 when the Commons passed a report against the government's will.
Robert Peel became Prime Minister in December 1834. However, his party formed only a minority in the House of Commons. The following general election did not change this situation, which left the Conservative Party over 100 seats shorter than the Whigs in the House of Commons. Peel's government was unable to implement most of its policies. On 7 April, Ralph Bernal, a Whig MP, brought up a Report of the Committee of the House on the Church of Ireland. The Report was passed in the House of Commons against the government's will by a vote of 285 to 258. Peel resigned on the next day and King William IV invited Whig leader Lord Melbourne to become Prime Minister and form a government.
First defeat of the Melbourne ministry (1841)
The first vote of no confidence in the government of Lord Melbourne occurred in June 1841.
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne became Prime Minister in April 1835. On 27 May 1841, Robert Peel, leader of the Conservative Party, introduced in the House of Commons a motion of no confidence against the Melbourne government. After five days of debate, the motion was carried in the House by a vote of 312 to 311 on 4 June. Melbourne then asked Queen Victoria to dissolve Parliament, which she did on 23 June. The Whig Party lost 70-odd seats in the following general election, and the government was defeated in a further vote of no confidence on 27 August.
Second defeat of the Melbourne ministry (1841)
The second vote of no confidence in the government of Lord Melbourne occurred in August 1841.
Queen Victoria had opened the new Parliament on 24 August. On the same day, Conservative MP John Stuart-Wortley proposed in the House of Commons an amendment to the House's address in answer to the Queen's Speech, which claimed that the government no longer possessed the confidence of Parliament. Lord Ripon, a former prime minister, proposed the same amendment in the House of Lords. After four days of debate, the House of Commons voted on 27 August on the question whether the proposed amendment should be left out of the address. The question was vetoed by a vote of 269 to 360 and Wortley's amendment was added to the address. This was the second time for a Melbourne government to lose a vote of confidence in the same year. He resigned on 30 August, and the Queen invited Conservative leader Robert Peel to become Prime Minister and form a government.
Second defeat of the Peel ministry (1846)
The 1846 vote of no confidence in the government of Robert Peel occurred in June 1846 when the House of Commons defeated a government bill.
Robert Peel became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for a second time in August 1841. In order to relieve the suffering caused by the Great Famine in Ireland, he decided in 1845 to repeal the Corn Laws which were passed in 1815 to protect British agricultural production by restrictions on grain imports. This policy caused a split in the Conservative Party between the free-traders led by Peel and the protectionists led by Lord Derby, Lord George Bentinck and Benjamin Disraeli. On 15 May 1846, Peel's Bill of Repeal (officially titled Corn Importation Bill) was passed in the House of Commons with the support of the Whigs and the Radicals.
The Protection of Life (Ireland) Bill (or "Coercion Bill") was introduced by the government in March 1846 to deal with the turbulences on the island, and was regarded by Peel's opponents as an opportunity to oust him. On 25 June, the same day when the Bill of Repeal was passed in the House of Lords, the Coercion Bill was defeated in the House of Commons on its second reading by a combination of Conservative protectionists, Whigs and Radicals. The vote was 219 to 292.
Peel's government resigned on 27 June, and Lord John Russell formed a Whig government. Lord Stanley became the Leader of the Conservative Party. The Conservative free-traders, including Lord Aberdeen and William Gladstone, followed Peel to form a distinct faction called the "Peelites". They merged with the Whigs, the Radicals and the Independent Irish Party in 1859 to form the Liberal Party.
First defeat of the Russell ministry (1851)
The 1851 vote of no confidence in the government of Lord John Russell occurred in February 1851 when a motion of enfranchisement was carried in the House of Commons against the government's will. Lord John Russell became Prime Minister in June 1846. During Russell's premiership, the Whig Party only formed a minority in the House of Commons. The government relied on the implicit support of the Peelites led by Robert Peel, and its support in Parliament was weak.
On 20 February 1851, Whig MP Peter King brought a motion in the House of Commons to "make the franchise in counties in England and Wales the same as that in boroughs, by giving the right of voting to all occupiers of tenements of the annual value of £10." This would make the county franchise the same as the borough franchise set in Reform Act 1832. The government's view, however, was against further expansion of the electorate. Trying to avoid a defeat, Russell promised in the debate to bring in official measures of reform, but the bill was passed anyway on its first reading by a vote of 100 to 52 (but defeated on the second reading).
Russell regarded the defeat as a vote of no confidence and submitted his resignation on 22 February. However, neither the Conservatives nor the Peelites was able to form a government, and the ministry resumed office on 3 March. As a result, Russell committed himself to further Parliamentary reforms and brought in several Reform Bills from 1852 to 1866. These efforts would finally lead to the passage of Reform Act 1867.
Second defeat of the Russell ministry (1852)
The 1852 vote of no confidence in the government of Lord John Russell occurred in February 1852 when the government was defeated on a bill in the House of Commons.
As the Whig Party only formed a minority in the House of Commons, the support for the government was weak. Russell's government had been defeated on a vote of no confidence in the previous year but resumed power shortly afterwards.