1979 Vote Of No Confidence In The Callaghan Ministry on:  
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A
vote of no confidence
A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...
in the British
Labour government of
James Callaghan occurred on 28 March 1979. The vote was brought by
opposition
Opposition may refer to:
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* ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars
* The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band
* '' The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Com ...
leader
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
and was lost by the Labour government by one vote (311 votes to 310), which was announced at 10:19 pm. The result mandated a
general election which was won by Thatcher's
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
. The last time an election had been forced by the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
was in 1924, when
Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour Prime Minister, lost a vote of confidence.
Labour politician
Roy Hattersley
Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley, (born 28 December 1932) is a British Labour Party politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He was MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook for over 32 years from 1964 to 1997, and served as Depu ...
later remarked that the vote marked "the
last rites
The last rites, also known as the Commendation of the Dying, are the last prayers and ministrations given to an individual of Christian faith, when possible, shortly before death. They may be administered to those awaiting execution, mortall ...
" of '
old Labour
The British Labour Party grew out of the trade union movement of the late 19th century and surpassed the Liberal Party as the main opposition to the Conservatives in the early 1920s. In the 1930s and 1940s, it stressed national planning, using ...
'.
Labour did not return to government for another 18 years. The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
has referred to the vote as "one of the most dramatic nights in Westminster history".
Background
The general election at the end of February 1974 resulted in a
hung parliament
A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing coalition (also known as an alliance or bloc) has an absolute majority of legisla ...
where Labour had slightly more seats than any other
party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...
but no overall majority. The
Conservatives
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
tried to negotiate a coalition with the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
but failed and
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...
's government resigned.
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
came to power in March 1974, its leader
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
having accepted the royal invitation to form a
minority government
A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and Cabinet (government), cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or Coalition government, coalition of parties do ...
. Wilson called a second election for October 1974, which gave Labour a majority of three MPs. The Labour government implemented pay restraint to control global inflation, coupled with
stagnation and unemployment at record post-war levels. Wilson resigned in 1976 in poor health, on turning 60, and
James Callaghan became leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister. By-elections and defections whittled away Labour's majority, which technically was non-existent by April 1976 in the House of Commons after a by-election defeat, the defection of two Labour MPs to form the
Scottish Labour Party
Scottish Labour ( gd, Pàrtaidh Làbarach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Labour Pairty; officially the Scottish Labour Party) is a social democratic political party in Scotland. It is an autonomous section of the UK Labour Party. From their peak o ...
and the defection of backbencher
John Stonehouse
John Thomson Stonehouse (28 July 192514 April 1988) was a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician and cabinet minister under Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Stonehouse is remembered for his unsuccessful attempt at faking his own death i ...
.
[BBC Politics Summaries](_blank)
– Background to the Vote of No Confidence
In 1977 the Labour government and the Liberal Party agreed to the
Lib–Lab pact In British politics, a Lib–Lab pact is a working arrangement between the Liberal Democrats (in previous times, the Liberal Party) and the Labour Party.
There have been four such arrangements, and one alleged proposal, at the national level. In ...
by which the Liberals agreed to support the government in return for pre-legislative consultation. The pact lasted for a year before lapsing in July 1978;
at which point the Liberal Party declared that they supported a general election as soon as possible and would therefore support any no confidence motions. Callaghan was widely expected to call an election in September 1978 but decided against this, hoping he would fare better in a year's time once the economy had improved. However the winter saw a prolonged period of industrial unrest known as the
Winter of Discontent
The Winter of Discontent was the period between November 1978 and February 1979 in the United Kingdom characterised by widespread strikes by private, and later public, sector trade unions demanding pay rises greater than the limits Prime Minis ...
which severely reduced Labour's popularity.
The government survived a
motion of no confidence
A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...
in December 1978 by ten votes after negotiating the support of the
Ulster Unionists
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movem ...
. (Draft legislation was before the House to give Northern Ireland more parliamentary seats; it cleared the House of Commons on 17 January 1979.)
On 1 March 1979 a
referendum on the Scotland Act saw a majority vote for devolution, but a threshold imposed by anti-devolution MPs requiring 40% of the electorate to be in favour was not reached due to low turnout.
When the government decided not to implement the Act, the
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...
MPs put down a motion of no confidence. After consulting with the Liberal Party to confirm that they were still supporting motions of no confidence, on Monday, 26 March, the Leader of the Opposition,
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
put down an
early day motion
In the Westminster parliamentary system, an early day motion (EDM) is a motion, expressed as a single sentence, tabled by members of Parliament that formally calls for debate "on an early day". In practice, they are rarely debated in the House a ...
"
at this House has no confidence in Her Majesty's Government." The government arranged for this motion to be debated on Wednesday 28 March as an opposition motion in government time.
Motion and debate
During the debate Callaghan criticised the
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...
, committed to independence for Scotland, for voting with the Conservative Party who opposed devolution. The Scottish National Party would subsequently lose all but two of their seats in the election following the no confidence vote:
As
leader of the House of Commons
The leader of the House of Commons is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom whose main role is organising government business in the House of Commons. The leader is generally a member or attendee of the cabinet of t ...
,
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Labour Leader from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on ''Tribune'' and the ''Evening Standard''. He co-wrote the 1940 p ...
closed the debate. During his speech he made a widely quoted put-down of Liberal leader
David Steel
David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, (born 31 March 1938) is a British politician. Elected as Member of Parliament for Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Peebles, followed by Tweeddale, Ettrick, and Lauderdale, he served as the final leade ...
, describing him as having "passed from rising hope to elder statesman without any intervening period whatsoever".
Vote
![Votes by party in the 1979 vote of no confidence against the government of James Callaghan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Votes_by_party_in_the_1979_vote_of_no_confidence_against_the_government_of_James_Callaghan.png)
The government lost by one vote.
James Hamilton, Labour's Scottish whip reportedly thought for a moment the support of two Ulster Unionist MPs would allow the Government a narrow victory.
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
initially believed she had lost the vote after a rough calculation as to the vote's outcome had been made without counting the two Conservative tellers who had counted the votes. Due to the closeness of the vote there is some debate as to whether deals could have been made which would have kept the Government in power. Had the vote been tied, the
Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings.
Systems that have such a position include:
* Speaker of ...
,
George Thomas, would probably have followed
Speaker Denison's rule
Speaker Denison's rule is a constitutional convention established by John Evelyn Denison, who was Speaker of the British House of Commons from 1857 to 1872, regarding how the Speaker decides on their casting vote in the event of a tie in the ...
and used his
casting vote
A casting vote is a vote that someone may exercise to resolve a tied vote in a deliberative body. A casting vote is typically by the presiding officer of a council, legislative body, committee, etc., and may only be exercised to break a deadlock ...
in favour of the status quo and thus against the motion. Following the vote Conservative backbenchers cheered and Labour left-wingers, led by
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
, sang "
The Red Flag
"The Red Flag" () is a socialist song, emphasising the sacrifices and solidarity of the international labour movement. It is the anthem of the British Labour Party, the Northern Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party and the Irish Labour ...
".
Ulster Unionists
Before the vote there were some discussions between Labour and the
Ulster Unionists
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movem ...
, including
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
, regarding a deal over a pipeline which would provide cheap energy to
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
. Callaghan was unwilling to support the proposal due to unhappiness with minority government. There were also discussions about a separate inflation index for Northern Ireland.
In the end, only two of the Ulster Unionists,
John Carson and
Harold McCusker
James Harold McCusker (7 February 1940 – 12 February 1990) was a Northern Ireland Ulster Unionist Party politician who served as the Deputy Leader of the UUP Assembly Group from 1982 to 1986.
Early life
The younger son of Jim and Lily McCu ...
, voted with the government.
Sir Alfred Broughton
One crucial vote was lost by Labour backbencher
Sir Alfred Broughton who was unable to attend the vote due to ill health.
Broughton (professionally a doctor) was mortally ill and died a few days after the vote but was determined to come to Westminster if it meant saving the government, although his own doctor was strongly opposed. Parliamentary procedure would have allowed his vote to be counted even if he remained within an ambulance at Speaker's Court. However, after a debate over what would happen if Broughton died ''en route'', Callaghan finally decided that he would not risk Broughton's health by asking him to travel, a decision which was to bring down the government.
Broughton died on 2 April 1979.
Pairing convention
Bernard Weatherill
Bruce Bernard Weatherill, Baron Weatherill, (25 November 1920 – 6 May 2007) was a British Conservative Party politician. He served as Speaker of the House of Commons between 1983 and 1992.
Family
He was the son of Bernard Bruce Weatherill ...
played a critical role in the defeat of the government in the vote of confidence. As the vote loomed, Labour's deputy chief whip,
Walter Harrison, approached Weatherill to enforce the
pairing
In mathematics, a pairing is an ''R''-bilinear map from the Cartesian product of two ''R''-modules, where the underlying ring ''R'' is commutative.
Definition
Let ''R'' be a commutative ring with unit, and let ''M'', ''N'' and ''L'' be ''R''-mod ...
convention that if a sick MP from the government could not vote, an MP from the opposition would abstain to compensate. Weatherill said that pairing had never been intended for votes on
matters of confidence that meant the life or death of the government and it would be impossible to find a Conservative MP who would agree to abstain. However, after a moment's reflection, he offered that he himself would abstain, because he felt it would be dishonourable to break his word with Harrison. Harrison was so impressed by Weatherill's offer – which would have effectively ended his political career – that he released Weatherill from his obligation and so the government fell by one vote on the agreement of gentlemen.
Clement Freud
During the last year of the Callaghan government it proposed reinventing the one year Lib-Lab pact which lapsed in July 1978, to include introducing a
Freedom of Information
Freedom of information is freedom of a person or people to publish and consume information. Access to information is the ability for an individual to seek, receive and impart information effectively. This sometimes includes "scientific, Indigeno ...
Act, long proposed by the
Liberals, although Callaghan himself was opposed to this kind of legislation. When the vote of no confidence came about, Liberal MP
Clement Freud
Sir Clement Raphael Freud (24 April 1924 – 15 April 2009) was a German-born British broadcaster, writer, politician and chef.
The son of Ernst L. Freud and grandson of Sigmund Freud, Clement moved to the United Kingdom from Nazi Germany as ...
, a long-time campaigner for freedom of information, was expected to follow his party and vote with the opposition. Freud, in Liverpool on the day of the vote, received a phone call from the Prime Minister's office at 3:00 pm asking for him to miss his train back to London for the 10:00 pm vote of no-confidence. In exchange, a "looser" version of his proposed Freedom of Information Act would be enacted. He declined the offer and voted with his party.
Welsh Nationalists
Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom.
Plaid wa ...
supported the Labour government after extracting concessions from them.
Irish Nationalists
Without Broughton, Labour needed the support of Northern Irish MPs to tie the vote.
Gerry Fitt
Gerard Fitt, Baron Fitt (9 April 1926 – 26 August 2005) was a politician in Northern Ireland. He was a founder and the first leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), a social democratic and Irish nationalist party.
Early yea ...
, the leader of the
Social Democratic and Labour Party
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland ...
, was sympathetic to the Labour Party and
Frank Maguire, an independent republican MP, had supported the government on previous knife-edge votes but were unhappy with proposals that would increase the number of constituencies in Northern Ireland and therefore increase Unionist representation. Fitt eventually decided not to support Labour but that he would campaign for them to be re-elected if they lost.
He urged
Frank Maguire to do the same. Although not an
abstentionist
Abstentionism is standing for election to a deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business. Abstentionism differs from an election boycott in that abstentionists participate in ...
Member of Parliament, Maguire rarely attended the House of Commons. He told a journalist in London before the vote, "I have come over here to abstain in person".
The BBC documentary "A Parliamentary Coup" states that Frank Maguire's wife was, unknown to Fitt, sitting in the public gallery of the House of Commons and urged her husband not to vote after hearing Fitt.
Aftermath
When a vote of no confidence is passed, the government must either resign or request a dissolution of Parliament from the monarch. Callaghan called a general election, stating, "We shall take our case to the country." Parliament was not dissolved immediately after the vote: a couple of days'
wash-up period
{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022
The wash-up period is the last few days while a Parliament of the United Kingdom continues to sit after the Prime Minister has announced the date when Parliament will be dissolved so a general election can be held ...
was allowed for the completion of uncontroversial business, with 25 bills receiving
royal assent
Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...
on 2 April, including a stopgap
Finance Act
A Finance Act is the headline fiscal (budgetary) legislation enacted by the UK Parliament, containing multiple provisions as to taxes, duties, exemptions and reliefs at least once per year, and in particular setting out the principal tax rates f ...
. The resulting election was won by the Conservative Party and led to 18 years of Conservative rule. After losing, Callaghan remained Labour leader for another year before the succession of
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Labour Leader from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on ''Tribune'' and the ''Evening Standard''. He co-wrote the 1940 p ...
.
The Scottish National Party also suffered in the 1979 general election, with its group reduced from 11 members to just two.
The incoming Conservative government repealed the Scotland Act and devolution was not enacted until the
1997 referendum.
See also
*
Norway Debate
The Norway Debate, sometimes called the Narvik Debate, was a momentous debate in the British House of Commons from 7 to 9 May 1940, during the Second World War. The official title of the debate, as held in the ''Hansard'' parliamentary archive, ...
, a momentous Commons debate which led to the appointment of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister
*
''This House'', a play by
James Graham
References
External links
Hansard text of debateRoy Hattersley's account of the vote of no confidenceArchive material from the BBC
{{DEFAULTSORT:1979 vote of no confidence in the government of James Callaghan
Votes of no confidence in the United Kingdom
1979 in British politics
James Callaghan
March 1979 events in the United Kingdom