List of government defeats in the House of Commons (1945–present)


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 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 large 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.

Attlee

Attlee led two ministries first Attlee ministry and the second Attlee ministry.
These defeats were under the second Attlee ministry.
Government suffered no defeats in the House of Commons.

Macmillan

's Government suffered no defeats in the House of Commons.

Douglas-Home

's Government suffered no defeats in the House of Commons.

Wilson (1st term)

's government suffered six defeats in the House of Commons during its four years in office.
'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.
'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.
's government suffered six defeats in the House of Commons during its seven-year tenure.
's government suffered four House of Commons defeats during its 10 years in office, all within a period of one year.
's government suffered three defeats in the House of Commons during its three years in office.
'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.
's majority government from 2016 to 2017 was not defeated in the House of Commons.

May (minority government)

'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.
In addition, three humble addresses were passed without division. Unlike Opposition Day motions, these are binding.
'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. It did not win a single division until 15 October, six weeks after its first sitting.
Since the 2019 general election, after which the Conservatives held 365 seats, Boris Johnson's second government has been defeated more than once: