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 (or censure motion), 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.
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 people's representatives. At the national level, this means that the UK government (the cabinet) must retain the confidence of a majority in the House of Commons.
It is possible for a vote of no confidence to succeed where there is a minority government or a small majority, or where there are internal party splits leading to some members of the ruling party voting against its leaders. Where there is a minority government, the government may seek agreements or pacts with other parties in order to prevail in the vote and remain in office.
Despite their importance to the constitution, for a long time the rules surrounding motions of no confidence were dictated solely by convention. Under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, a vote of no confidence had to be passed in a specific form in order to create the possibility of an early general election. Under the Act, if a motion of no confidence in the government was passed in express terms, the house must then adopt a vote of confidence in that same or an alternative government within 14 days, or a general election be held. These practices were ended in 2022, with the repeal of the 2011 Act.
A no-confidence vote was last successfully used on 28 March 1979, when the minority government of James Callaghan was defeated. 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. The most recent confidence vote instigated by the opposition was held on 16 January 2019, with the government prevailing.
Defeat of a motion of no confidence (or winning a vote of confidence) does not provide protection to the government in power for any specific length of time. MPs from any political party may propose another vote immediately, although are unlikely to do so due to convention and potential weakening of their own standing.
Forms
Since 1945 there have been three votes of confidence and 23 of no confidence.
Confidence motions fall into three categories: Explicit motions initiated by the Government Explicit motions initiated by the Opposition Motions which can be regarded as issues of confidence because of particular circumstances.
Government
A motion in this category is often effectively a threat of dissolution by the government, in order to persuade backbench MPs to support a bill. One such threat occurred in 1993 so that John Major could pass the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty. In 2022, the outgoing government of Boris Johnson called a vote of confidence in itself after rejecting the wording of a proposed opposition motion that had signalled no confidence in both the government and Johnson's leadership specifically.
Opposition
Opposition motions are initiated by the opposition party and often have little chance of success. By convention, a no-confidence vote takes precedence over normal Parliamentary business for that day, and will begin with speeches from the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, rather than the ministers for the policy area which may be the concern of the motion. The motion may either profess no confidence in the Government itself, or no confidence in the particular policies of a government. Probably the most famous no-confidence motion was on the night of 28 March 1979 when Jim Callaghan's Labour Government fell from office by one vote, 311–310, in what was described by the BBC as one of the most dramatic nights in Westminster's history.