Motions of no confidence in the United Kingdom

Motions of no confidence, also called votes of confidence,votes of no-confidence or censure motions, are a feature of the Westminster system of government used in the United Kingdom that requires an executive to retain the confidence of the House of Commons. It is a fundamental principle of the British constitution that the Government must retain the confidence of the legislature as it is not possible for a Government to operate effectively without the support of the majority of the legislature.

It is possible for a vote of no confidence to succeed where there is a minority government, a small majority or where there are internal party splits. Where there is a minority government, the government may seek agreements or pacts with minor parties in order to remain in office.

Despite their importance to the British constitution, for a long time the rules surrounding motions of no confidence were dictated by convention. However, since the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, a vote of no confidence means the government has 14 days in which to win a vote of confidence, or a general election is held.

A no confidence vote was last successfully used on 28 March 1979, when the minority government of James Callaghan was defeated in a confidence motion which read "That this House has no confidence in Her Majesty's Government". A no confidence vote can have the effect of uniting the ruling party; for this reason such motions are rarely used and successful motions are even rarer. Before 1979 the last successful motion of no confidence occurred in 1924.

Since 1945 there have been 3 votes of confidence and 23 of no confidence.

Motions of no confidence fall into three categories. Motions initiated by the Government, those initiated by the Opposition, and motions which can be regarded as issues of confidence because of particular circumstances. The first category are effectively threats of dissolution as occurred in 1993 so that John Major could pass the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty.

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