CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html> <html class="client-nojs vector-feature-language-in-header-enabled vector-feature-language-in-main-page-header-disabled vector-feature-page-tools-pinned-disabled vector-feature-toc-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-main-menu-pinned-disabled vector-feature-limited-width-clientpref-1 vector-feature-limited-width-content-enabled vector-feature-custom-font-size-clientpref-1 vector-feature-appearance-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-night-mode-enabled skin-theme-clientpref-day vector-sticky-header-enabled vector-toc-available" lang="en" dir="ltr"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <title>1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry - Wikipedia</title> <script>(function(){var className="client-js vector-feature-language-in-header-enabled vector-feature-language-in-main-page-header-disabled vector-feature-page-tools-pinned-disabled vector-feature-toc-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-main-menu-pinned-disabled vector-feature-limited-width-clientpref-1 vector-feature-limited-width-content-enabled vector-feature-custom-font-size-clientpref-1 vector-feature-appearance-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-night-mode-enabled skin-theme-clientpref-day vector-sticky-header-enabled vector-toc-available";var cookie=document.cookie.match(/(?:^|; )enwikimwclientpreferences=([^;]+)/);if(cookie){cookie[1].split('%2C').forEach(function(pref){className=className.replace(new RegExp('(^| )'+pref.replace(/-clientpref-\w+$|[^\w-]+/g,'')+'-clientpref-\\w+( |$)'),'$1'+pref+'$2');});}document.documentElement.className=className;}());RLCONF={"wgBreakFrames":false,"wgSeparatorTransformTable":["",""],"wgDigitTransformTable":["",""],"wgDefaultDateFormat":"dmy", "wgMonthNames":["","January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December"],"wgRequestId":"19bfc943-12ef-4da2-af90-85d561ec3fd9","wgCanonicalNamespace":"","wgCanonicalSpecialPageName":false,"wgNamespaceNumber":0,"wgPageName":"1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry","wgTitle":"1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry","wgCurRevisionId":1272291028,"wgRevisionId":1272291028,"wgArticleId":23026183,"wgIsArticle":true,"wgIsRedirect":false,"wgAction":"view","wgUserName":null,"wgUserGroups":["*"],"wgCategories":["Articles with short description","Short description is different from Wikidata","Use British English from March 2012","Use dmy dates from March 2019","Wikipedia articles needing clarification from August 2019","Votes of no confidence in the United Kingdom","1979 in British politics","James Callaghan","March 1979 in the United Kingdom"],"wgPageViewLanguage":"en","wgPageContentLanguage":"en", "wgPageContentModel":"wikitext","wgRelevantPageName":"1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry","wgRelevantArticleId":23026183,"wgIsProbablyEditable":true,"wgRelevantPageIsProbablyEditable":true,"wgRestrictionEdit":[],"wgRestrictionMove":[],"wgNoticeProject":"wikipedia","wgCiteReferencePreviewsActive":false,"wgFlaggedRevsParams":{"tags":{"status":{"levels":1}}},"wgMediaViewerOnClick":true,"wgMediaViewerEnabledByDefault":true,"wgPopupsFlags":0,"wgVisualEditor":{"pageLanguageCode":"en","pageLanguageDir":"ltr","pageVariantFallbacks":"en"},"wgMFDisplayWikibaseDescriptions":{"search":true,"watchlist":true,"tagline":false,"nearby":true},"wgWMESchemaEditAttemptStepOversample":false,"wgWMEPageLength":20000,"wgEditSubmitButtonLabelPublish":true,"wgULSPosition":"interlanguage","wgULSisCompactLinksEnabled":false,"wgVector2022LanguageInHeader":true,"wgULSisLanguageSelectorEmpty":false,"wgWikibaseItemId":"Q4579001","wgCheckUserClientHintsHeadersJsApi":["brands","architecture","bitness", "fullVersionList","mobile","model","platform","platformVersion"],"GEHomepageSuggestedEditsEnableTopics":true,"wgGETopicsMatchModeEnabled":false,"wgGEStructuredTaskRejectionReasonTextInputEnabled":false,"wgGELevelingUpEnabledForUser":false};RLSTATE={"ext.globalCssJs.user.styles":"ready","site.styles":"ready","user.styles":"ready","ext.globalCssJs.user":"ready","user":"ready","user.options":"loading","ext.cite.styles":"ready","skins.vector.search.codex.styles":"ready","skins.vector.styles":"ready","skins.vector.icons":"ready","jquery.makeCollapsible.styles":"ready","ext.wikimediamessages.styles":"ready","ext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.noscript":"ready","ext.uls.interlanguage":"ready","wikibase.client.init":"ready","ext.wikimediaBadges":"ready"};RLPAGEMODULES=["ext.cite.ux-enhancements","mediawiki.page.media","site","mediawiki.page.ready","jquery.makeCollapsible","mediawiki.toc","skins.vector.js","ext.centralNotice.geoIP","ext.centralNotice.startUp","ext.gadget.ReferenceTooltips", "ext.gadget.switcher","ext.urlShortener.toolbar","ext.centralauth.centralautologin","mmv.bootstrap","ext.popups","ext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.init","ext.visualEditor.targetLoader","ext.echo.centralauth","ext.eventLogging","ext.wikimediaEvents","ext.navigationTiming","ext.uls.interface","ext.cx.eventlogging.campaigns","ext.cx.uls.quick.actions","wikibase.client.vector-2022","ext.checkUser.clientHints","ext.growthExperiments.SuggestedEditSession"];</script> <script>(RLQ=window.RLQ||[]).push(function(){mw.loader.impl(function(){return["user.options@12s5i",function($,jQuery,require,module){mw.user.tokens.set({"patrolToken":"+\\","watchToken":"+\\","csrfToken":"+\\"}); }];});});</script> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=ext.cite.styles%7Cext.uls.interlanguage%7Cext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.noscript%7Cext.wikimediaBadges%7Cext.wikimediamessages.styles%7Cjquery.makeCollapsible.styles%7Cskins.vector.icons%2Cstyles%7Cskins.vector.search.codex.styles%7Cwikibase.client.init&only=styles&skin=vector-2022"> <script async="" src="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=startup&only=scripts&raw=1&skin=vector-2022"></script> <meta name="ResourceLoaderDynamicStyles" content=""> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=site.styles&only=styles&skin=vector-2022"> <meta name="generator" content="MediaWiki 1.44.0-wmf.16"> <meta name="referrer" content="origin"> <meta name="referrer" content="origin-when-cross-origin"> <meta name="robots" content="max-image-preview:standard"> <meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no"> <meta property="og:image" content="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/James_Callaghan_%281977%29.jpg"> <meta property="og:image:width" content="1200"> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1555"> <meta property="og:image" content="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/James_Callaghan_%281977%29.jpg/800px-James_Callaghan_%281977%29.jpg"> <meta property="og:image:width" content="800"> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1037"> <meta property="og:image" content="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/James_Callaghan_%281977%29.jpg/640px-James_Callaghan_%281977%29.jpg"> <meta property="og:image:width" content="640"> <meta property="og:image:height" content="829"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=1120"> <meta property="og:title" content="1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry - Wikipedia"> <meta property="og:type" content="website"> <link rel="preconnect" href="//upload.wikimedia.org"> <link rel="alternate" media="only screen and (max-width: 640px)" href="//en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/x-wiki" title="Edit this page" href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png"> <link rel="icon" href="/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico"> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="/w/rest.php/v1/search" title="Wikipedia (en)"> <link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" href="//en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=rsd"> <link rel="canonical" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry"> <link rel="license" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Wikipedia Atom feed" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&feed=atom"> <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="//meta.wikimedia.org" /> <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="login.wikimedia.org"> </head> <body class="skin--responsive skin-vector skin-vector-search-vue mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject mw-editable page-1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry rootpage-1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry skin-vector-2022 action-view"><a class="mw-jump-link" href="#bodyContent">Jump to content</a> <div class="vector-header-container"> <header class="vector-header mw-header"> <div class="vector-header-start"> <nav class="vector-main-menu-landmark" aria-label="Site"> <div id="vector-main-menu-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown vector-main-menu-dropdown vector-button-flush-left vector-button-flush-right" title="Main menu" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-main-menu-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-main-menu-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Main menu" > <label id="vector-main-menu-dropdown-label" for="vector-main-menu-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-menu mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-menu"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Main menu</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-main-menu-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> <div id="vector-main-menu" class="vector-main-menu vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-main-menu-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-unpinned" data-feature-name="main-menu-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-main-menu" data-pinned-container-id="vector-main-menu-pinned-container" data-unpinned-container-id="vector-main-menu-unpinned-container" > <div class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Main menu</div> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-main-menu.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-main-menu.unpin">hide</button> </div> <div id="p-navigation" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-navigation" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Navigation </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="n-mainpage-description" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Main_Page" title="Visit the main page [z]" accesskey="z"><span>Main page</span></a></li><li id="n-contents" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Contents" title="Guides to browsing Wikipedia"><span>Contents</span></a></li><li id="n-currentevents" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Portal:Current_events" title="Articles related to current events"><span>Current events</span></a></li><li id="n-randompage" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:Random" title="Visit a randomly selected article [x]" accesskey="x"><span>Random article</span></a></li><li id="n-aboutsite" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:About" title="Learn about Wikipedia and how it works"><span>About Wikipedia</span></a></li><li id="n-contactpage" class="mw-list-item"><a href="//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contact_us" title="How to contact Wikipedia"><span>Contact us</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-interaction" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-interaction" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Contribute </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="n-help" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Help:Contents" title="Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia"><span>Help</span></a></li><li id="n-introduction" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Help:Introduction" title="Learn how to edit Wikipedia"><span>Learn to edit</span></a></li><li id="n-portal" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_portal" title="The hub for editors"><span>Community portal</span></a></li><li id="n-recentchanges" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:RecentChanges" title="A list of recent changes to Wikipedia [r]" accesskey="r"><span>Recent changes</span></a></li><li id="n-upload" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:File_upload_wizard" title="Add images or other media for use on Wikipedia"><span>Upload file</span></a></li><li id="n-specialpages" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:SpecialPages"><span>Special pages</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <a href="/wiki/Main_Page" class="mw-logo"> <img class="mw-logo-icon" src="/static/images/icons/wikipedia.png" alt="" aria-hidden="true" height="50" width="50"> <span class="mw-logo-container skin-invert"> <img class="mw-logo-wordmark" alt="Wikipedia" src="/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-wordmark-en.svg" style="width: 7.5em; height: 1.125em;"> <img class="mw-logo-tagline" alt="The Free Encyclopedia" src="/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-tagline-en.svg" width="117" height="13" style="width: 7.3125em; height: 0.8125em;"> </span> </a> </div> <div class="vector-header-end"> <div id="p-search" role="search" class="vector-search-box-vue vector-search-box-collapses vector-search-box-show-thumbnail vector-search-box-auto-expand-width vector-search-box"> <a href="/wiki/Special:Search" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only search-toggle" title="Search Wikipedia [f]" accesskey="f"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-search mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-search"></span> <span>Search</span> </a> <div class="vector-typeahead-search-container"> <div class="cdx-typeahead-search cdx-typeahead-search--show-thumbnail cdx-typeahead-search--auto-expand-width"> <form action="/w/index.php" id="searchform" class="cdx-search-input cdx-search-input--has-end-button"> <div id="simpleSearch" class="cdx-search-input__input-wrapper" data-search-loc="header-moved"> <div class="cdx-text-input cdx-text-input--has-start-icon"> <input class="cdx-text-input__input" type="search" name="search" placeholder="Search Wikipedia" aria-label="Search Wikipedia" autocapitalize="sentences" title="Search Wikipedia [f]" accesskey="f" id="searchInput" > <span class="cdx-text-input__icon cdx-text-input__start-icon"></span> </div> <input type="hidden" name="title" value="Special:Search"> </div> <button class="cdx-button cdx-search-input__end-button">Search</button> </form> </div> </div> </div> <nav class="vector-user-links vector-user-links-wide" aria-label="Personal tools"> <div class="vector-user-links-main"> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-preferences" class="vector-menu mw-portlet emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-userpage" class="vector-menu mw-portlet emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> <nav class="vector-appearance-landmark" aria-label="Appearance"> <div id="vector-appearance-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown " title="Change the appearance of the page's font size, width, and color" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-appearance-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-appearance-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Appearance" > <label id="vector-appearance-dropdown-label" for="vector-appearance-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-appearance mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-appearance"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Appearance</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-appearance-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-notifications" class="vector-menu mw-portlet emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-overflow" class="vector-menu mw-portlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="pt-sitesupport-2" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item user-links-collapsible-item"><a data-mw="interface" href="https://donate.wikimedia.org/?wmf_source=donate&wmf_medium=sidebar&wmf_campaign=en.wikipedia.org&uselang=en" class=""><span>Donate</span></a> </li> <li id="pt-createaccount-2" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item user-links-collapsible-item"><a data-mw="interface" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:CreateAccount&returnto=1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" title="You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory" class=""><span>Create account</span></a> </li> <li id="pt-login-2" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item user-links-collapsible-item"><a data-mw="interface" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&returnto=1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" title="You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [o]" accesskey="o" class=""><span>Log in</span></a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div id="vector-user-links-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown vector-user-menu vector-button-flush-right vector-user-menu-logged-out" title="Log in and more options" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-user-links-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-user-links-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Personal tools" > <label id="vector-user-links-dropdown-label" for="vector-user-links-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-ellipsis mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-ellipsis"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Personal tools</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="p-personal" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-personal user-links-collapsible-item" title="User menu" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="pt-sitesupport" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="https://donate.wikimedia.org/?wmf_source=donate&wmf_medium=sidebar&wmf_campaign=en.wikipedia.org&uselang=en"><span>Donate</span></a></li><li id="pt-createaccount" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:CreateAccount&returnto=1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" title="You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-userAdd mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-userAdd"></span> <span>Create account</span></a></li><li id="pt-login" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&returnto=1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" title="You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [o]" accesskey="o"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-logIn mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-logIn"></span> <span>Log in</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-user-menu-anon-editor" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-user-menu-anon-editor" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Pages for logged out editors <a href="/wiki/Help:Introduction" aria-label="Learn more about editing"><span>learn more</span></a> </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="pt-anoncontribs" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:MyContributions" title="A list of edits made from this IP address [y]" accesskey="y"><span>Contributions</span></a></li><li id="pt-anontalk" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:MyTalk" title="Discussion about edits from this IP address [n]" accesskey="n"><span>Talk</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </header> </div> <div class="mw-page-container"> <div class="mw-page-container-inner"> <div class="vector-sitenotice-container"> <div id="siteNotice"></div> </div> <div class="vector-column-start"> <div class="vector-main-menu-container"> <div id="mw-navigation"> <nav id="mw-panel" class="vector-main-menu-landmark" aria-label="Site"> <div id="vector-main-menu-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-pinned-container"> <nav id="mw-panel-toc" aria-label="Contents" data-event-name="ui.sidebar-toc" class="mw-table-of-contents-container vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-toc-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> <div id="vector-toc" class="vector-toc vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-toc-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-pinned" data-feature-name="toc-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-toc" > <h2 class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Contents</h2> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-toc.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-toc.unpin">hide</button> </div> <ul class="vector-toc-contents" id="mw-panel-toc-list"> <li id="toc-mw-content-text" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1"> <a href="#" class="vector-toc-link"> <div class="vector-toc-text">(Top)</div> </a> </li> <li id="toc-Background" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Background"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1</span> <span>Background</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Background-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Motion_and_debate" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Motion_and_debate"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2</span> <span>Motion and debate</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Motion_and_debate-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Vote" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Vote"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3</span> <span>Vote</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-Vote-sublist" class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-toc-toggle"> <span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-expand"></span> <span>Toggle Vote subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-Vote-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-Ulster_Unionists" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Ulster_Unionists"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.1</span> <span>Ulster Unionists</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Ulster_Unionists-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Sir_Alfred_Broughton" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Sir_Alfred_Broughton"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.2</span> <span>Sir Alfred Broughton</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Sir_Alfred_Broughton-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-Pairing_convention" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-3"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Pairing_convention"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.2.1</span> <span>Pairing convention</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Pairing_convention-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Clement_Freud" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Clement_Freud"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.3</span> <span>Clement Freud</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Clement_Freud-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Welsh_Nationalists" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Welsh_Nationalists"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.4</span> <span>Welsh Nationalists</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Welsh_Nationalists-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Irish_Nationalists" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Irish_Nationalists"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.5</span> <span>Irish Nationalists</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Irish_Nationalists-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Aftermath" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Aftermath"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4</span> <span>Aftermath</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Aftermath-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-References" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6</span> <span>References</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-References-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-External_links" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#External_links"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">7</span> <span>External links</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-External_links-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="mw-content-container"> <main id="content" class="mw-body"> <header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-titlebar-toc vector-button-flush-left" title="Table of Contents" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Toggle the table of contents" > <label id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-label" for="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-listBullet mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-listBullet"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Toggle the table of contents</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading mw-first-heading"><span class="mw-page-title-main">1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry</span></h1> <div id="p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown mw-portlet mw-portlet-lang" > <input type="checkbox" id="p-lang-btn-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox mw-interlanguage-selector" aria-label="This article exist only in this language. Add the article for other languages" > <label id="p-lang-btn-label" for="p-lang-btn-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--action-progressive mw-portlet-lang-heading-0" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-language-progressive mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-language-progressive"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Add languages</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> <div class="after-portlet after-portlet-lang"><span class="uls-after-portlet-link"></span><span class="wb-langlinks-add wb-langlinks-link"><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityPage/Q4579001#sitelinks-wikipedia" title="Add interlanguage links" class="wbc-editpage">Add links</a></span></div> </div> </div> </div> </header> <div class="vector-page-toolbar"> <div class="vector-page-toolbar-container"> <div id="left-navigation"> <nav aria-label="Namespaces"> <div id="p-associated-pages" class="vector-menu vector-menu-tabs mw-portlet mw-portlet-associated-pages" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="ca-nstab-main" class="selected vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry" title="View the content page [c]" accesskey="c"><span>Article</span></a></li><li id="ca-talk" class="vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Talk:1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry" rel="discussion" title="Discuss improvements to the content page [t]" accesskey="t"><span>Talk</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="vector-variants-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown emptyPortlet" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-variants-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-variants-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Change language variant" > <label id="vector-variants-dropdown-label" for="vector-variants-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">English</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="p-variants" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-variants emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> <div id="right-navigation" class="vector-collapsible"> <nav aria-label="Views"> <div id="p-views" class="vector-menu vector-menu-tabs mw-portlet mw-portlet-views" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="ca-view" class="selected vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry"><span>Read</span></a></li><li id="ca-edit" class="vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit" title="Edit this page [e]" accesskey="e"><span>Edit</span></a></li><li id="ca-history" class="vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=history" title="Past revisions of this page [h]" accesskey="h"><span>View history</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> <nav class="vector-page-tools-landmark" aria-label="Page tools"> <div id="vector-page-tools-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-tools-dropdown" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-tools-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-page-tools-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Tools" > <label id="vector-page-tools-dropdown-label" for="vector-page-tools-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Tools</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-page-tools-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> <div id="vector-page-tools" class="vector-page-tools vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-page-tools-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-unpinned" data-feature-name="page-tools-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-page-tools" data-pinned-container-id="vector-page-tools-pinned-container" data-unpinned-container-id="vector-page-tools-unpinned-container" > <div class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Tools</div> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-page-tools.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-page-tools.unpin">hide</button> </div> <div id="p-cactions" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-cactions emptyPortlet vector-has-collapsible-items" title="More options" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Actions </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="ca-more-view" class="selected vector-more-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry"><span>Read</span></a></li><li id="ca-more-edit" class="vector-more-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit" title="Edit this page [e]" accesskey="e"><span>Edit</span></a></li><li id="ca-more-history" class="vector-more-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=history"><span>View history</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-tb" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-tb" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> General </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="t-whatlinkshere" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry" title="List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [j]" accesskey="j"><span>What links here</span></a></li><li id="t-recentchangeslinked" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:RecentChangesLinked/1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry" rel="nofollow" title="Recent changes in pages linked from this page [k]" accesskey="k"><span>Related changes</span></a></li><li id="t-upload" class="mw-list-item"><a href="//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard" title="Upload files [u]" accesskey="u"><span>Upload file</span></a></li><li id="t-permalink" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&oldid=1272291028" title="Permanent link to this revision of this page"><span>Permanent link</span></a></li><li id="t-info" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=info" title="More information about this page"><span>Page information</span></a></li><li id="t-cite" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:CiteThisPage&page=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&id=1272291028&wpFormIdentifier=titleform" title="Information on how to cite this page"><span>Cite this page</span></a></li><li id="t-urlshortener" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UrlShortener&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry"><span>Get shortened URL</span></a></li><li id="t-urlshortener-qrcode" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:QrCode&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry"><span>Download QR code</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-coll-print_export" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-coll-print_export" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Print/export </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="coll-download-as-rl" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:DownloadAsPdf&page=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=show-download-screen" title="Download this page as a PDF file"><span>Download as PDF</span></a></li><li id="t-print" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&printable=yes" title="Printable version of this page [p]" accesskey="p"><span>Printable version</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-wikibase-otherprojects" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-wikibase-otherprojects" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> In other projects </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="t-wikibase" class="wb-otherproject-link wb-otherproject-wikibase-dataitem mw-list-item"><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityPage/Q4579001" title="Structured data on this page hosted by Wikidata [g]" accesskey="g"><span>Wikidata item</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-column-end"> <div class="vector-sticky-pinned-container"> <nav class="vector-page-tools-landmark" aria-label="Page tools"> <div id="vector-page-tools-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> </div> </nav> <nav class="vector-appearance-landmark" aria-label="Appearance"> <div id="vector-appearance-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> <div id="vector-appearance" class="vector-appearance vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-appearance-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-pinned" data-feature-name="appearance-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-appearance" data-pinned-container-id="vector-appearance-pinned-container" data-unpinned-container-id="vector-appearance-unpinned-container" > <div class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Appearance</div> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-appearance.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-appearance.unpin">hide</button> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div id="bodyContent" class="vector-body" aria-labelledby="firstHeading" data-mw-ve-target-container> <div class="vector-body-before-content"> <div class="mw-indicators"> </div> <div id="siteSub" class="noprint">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</div> </div> <div id="contentSub"><div id="mw-content-subtitle"></div></div> <div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">Political event in the UK</div> <p class="mw-empty-elt"> </p> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:James_Callaghan_(1977).jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/James_Callaghan_%281977%29.jpg/170px-James_Callaghan_%281977%29.jpg" decoding="async" width="170" height="220" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/James_Callaghan_%281977%29.jpg/255px-James_Callaghan_%281977%29.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/James_Callaghan_%281977%29.jpg/340px-James_Callaghan_%281977%29.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1089" data-file-height="1411" /></a><figcaption>Prime Minister <a href="/wiki/James_Callaghan" title="James Callaghan">James Callaghan</a> lost the vote of no confidence by just one vote.</figcaption></figure> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1129693374">.mw-parser-output .hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul{margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt,.mw-parser-output .hlist li{margin:0;display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul ul{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist .mw-empty-li{display:none}.mw-parser-output .hlist dt::after{content:": "}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li::after{content:" · ";font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li:last-child::after{content:none}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dd:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dt:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dd:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dt:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dd:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dt:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li li:first-child::before{content:" (";font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd li:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt li:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li li:last-child::after{content:")";font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .hlist ol{counter-reset:listitem}.mw-parser-output .hlist ol>li{counter-increment:listitem}.mw-parser-output .hlist ol>li::before{content:" "counter(listitem)"\a0 "}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd ol>li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt ol>li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li ol>li:first-child::before{content:" ("counter(listitem)"\a0 "}</style><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1246091330">.mw-parser-output .sidebar{width:22em;float:right;clear:right;margin:0.5em 0 1em 1em;background:var(--background-color-neutral-subtle,#f8f9fa);border:1px solid var(--border-color-base,#a2a9b1);padding:0.2em;text-align:center;line-height:1.4em;font-size:88%;border-collapse:collapse;display:table}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .sidebar{display:table!important;float:right!important;margin:0.5em 0 1em 1em!important}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-subgroup{width:100%;margin:0;border-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-left{float:left;clear:left;margin:0.5em 1em 1em 0}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-none{float:none;clear:both;margin:0.5em 1em 1em 0}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-outer-title{padding:0 0.4em 0.2em;font-size:125%;line-height:1.2em;font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-top-image{padding:0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-top-caption,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-pretitle-with-top-image,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-caption{padding:0.2em 0.4em 0;line-height:1.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-pretitle{padding:0.4em 0.4em 0;line-height:1.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-title,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{padding:0.2em 0.8em;font-size:145%;line-height:1.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{padding:0.1em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-image{padding:0.2em 0.4em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-heading{padding:0.1em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-content{padding:0 0.5em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-content-with-subgroup{padding:0.1em 0.4em 0.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-above,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-below{padding:0.3em 0.8em;font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-collapse .sidebar-above,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-collapse .sidebar-below{border-top:1px solid #aaa;border-bottom:1px solid #aaa}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-navbar{text-align:right;font-size:115%;padding:0 0.4em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-list-title{padding:0 0.4em;text-align:left;font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6em;font-size:105%}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-list-title-c{padding:0 0.4em;text-align:center;margin:0 3.3em}@media(max-width:640px){body.mediawiki .mw-parser-output .sidebar{width:100%!important;clear:both;float:none!important;margin-left:0!important;margin-right:0!important}}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .sidebar a>img{max-width:none!important}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-list-title,html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{background:transparent!important}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle a{color:var(--color-progressive)!important}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-list-title,html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{background:transparent!important}html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle a{color:var(--color-progressive)!important}}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .sidebar{display:none!important}}</style><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1157919884">.mw-parser-output .sidebar-person{border:4px double #d69d36}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-person .sidebar-title{font-size:110%;padding:0;line-height:150%}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-person-title-image{background-color:#002466;vertical-align:middle;padding:5px}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-person-title{background-color:#002466;vertical-align:middle;padding:6px;width:100%}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-person-title>div{font-size:88%;line-height:normal}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-person .sidebar-content{padding:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-person .sidebar-navbar{text-align:center}</style><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239334494">@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output div:not(.notheme)>.tmp-color,html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output p>.tmp-color,html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output table:not(.notheme) .tmp-color{color:inherit!important}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output div:not(.notheme)>.tmp-color,html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output p>.tmp-color,html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output table:not(.notheme) .tmp-color{color:inherit!important}}</style><table class="sidebar nomobile nowraplinks sidebar-person vcard hlist" style="border-color: darkgrey"><tbody><tr><th class="sidebar-title"><table><tbody><tr> <td class="sidebar-person-title-image" style="background-color:#E4003B;color:inherit;"><span class="mw-image-border" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:James_Callaghan_(1975).jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/James_Callaghan_%281975%29.jpg/75px-James_Callaghan_%281975%29.jpg" decoding="async" width="75" height="102" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/James_Callaghan_%281975%29.jpg/113px-James_Callaghan_%281975%29.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/James_Callaghan_%281975%29.jpg/150px-James_Callaghan_%281975%29.jpg 2x" data-file-width="850" data-file-height="1155" /></a></span></td> <td class="sidebar-person-title" style="background-color:#E4003B;color: #FFF;"><div><span class="tmp-color" style="color: #FFF">This article is part of <br />a series about</span></div><span class="vcard"><span class="fn"><a href="/wiki/James_Callaghan" title="James Callaghan"><span class="tmpl-colored-link" style="color: #FFF; text-decoration: inherit;">James Callaghan</span></a></span></span></td> </tr></tbody></table></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)" title="Labour Party (UK)">Labour Party</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cardiff_South_East_(UK_Parliament_constituency)" title="Cardiff South East (UK Parliament constituency)">MP for Cardiff South East</a></li></ul> <hr /> <div style="font-weight: bold;line-height:normal;">Wilson's Cabinet</div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Decimal_Day#Background" title="Decimal Day">Decimalisation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Race_Relations_Act_1968" title="Race Relations Act 1968">Race Relations Act 1968</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1975_United_Kingdom_European_Communities_membership_referendum" title="1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum">1975 EEC Referendum</a></li></ul> <hr /> <div style="font-weight: bold;line-height:normal;">Prime Minister of the United Kingdom</div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/1976_Labour_Party_leadership_election" title="1976 Labour Party leadership election">1976 leadership election</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Labour_government,_1974%E2%80%931979#Callaghan_ministry" title="Labour government, 1974–1979">Cabinet</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lib%E2%80%93Lab_pact" title="Lib–Lab pact">Lib–Lab pact</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Winter_of_Discontent" title="Winter of Discontent">Winter of Discontent</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1979_Scottish_devolution_referendum" title="1979 Scottish devolution referendum">1979 Scottish devolution referendum</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1979_Welsh_devolution_referendum" title="1979 Welsh devolution referendum">1979 Welsh devolution referendum</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Vote of no confidence</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/April_1979_United_Kingdom_budget" title="April 1979 United Kingdom budget">1979 budget</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1979_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="1979 United Kingdom general election">1979 general election</a></li></ul> <hr /> <p><span typeof="mw:File"><span><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Royal_Coat_of_Arms_of_the_United_Kingdom_%28HM_Government%29_%28St_Edwards_Crown%29.svg/50px-Royal_Coat_of_Arms_of_the_United_Kingdom_%28HM_Government%29_%28St_Edwards_Crown%29.svg.png" decoding="async" width="50" height="41" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Royal_Coat_of_Arms_of_the_United_Kingdom_%28HM_Government%29_%28St_Edwards_Crown%29.svg/75px-Royal_Coat_of_Arms_of_the_United_Kingdom_%28HM_Government%29_%28St_Edwards_Crown%29.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Royal_Coat_of_Arms_of_the_United_Kingdom_%28HM_Government%29_%28St_Edwards_Crown%29.svg/100px-Royal_Coat_of_Arms_of_the_United_Kingdom_%28HM_Government%29_%28St_Edwards_Crown%29.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1530" data-file-height="1256" /></span></span> </p> <span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/List_of_coats_of_arms_of_Prime_Ministers_of_the_United_Kingdom" title="List of coats of arms of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Arms_of_James_Callaghan.svg/30px-Arms_of_James_Callaghan.svg.png" decoding="async" width="30" height="36" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Arms_of_James_Callaghan.svg/45px-Arms_of_James_Callaghan.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Arms_of_James_Callaghan.svg/60px-Arms_of_James_Callaghan.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="617" /></a></span></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-navbar"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239400231">.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:inline;font-size:88%;font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .navbar-collapse{float:left;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .navbar-boxtext{word-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .navbar ul{display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;line-height:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::before{margin-right:-0.125em;content:"[ "}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::after{margin-left:-0.125em;content:" ]"}.mw-parser-output .navbar li{word-spacing:-0.125em}.mw-parser-output .navbar a>span,.mw-parser-output .navbar a>abbr{text-decoration:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-mini abbr{font-variant:small-caps;border-bottom:none;text-decoration:none;cursor:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-full{font-size:114%;margin:0 7em}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-mini{font-size:114%;margin:0 4em}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}@media(prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}}@media print{.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:none!important}}</style><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:James_Callaghan_sidebar" title="Template:James Callaghan sidebar"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:James_Callaghan_sidebar" title="Template talk:James Callaghan sidebar"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:James_Callaghan_sidebar" title="Special:EditPage/Template:James Callaghan sidebar"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p>A <a href="/wiki/Vote_of_no_confidence" class="mw-redirect" title="Vote of no confidence">vote of no confidence</a> in the British <a href="/wiki/Labour_government,_1974%E2%80%931979" title="Labour government, 1974–1979">Labour government</a> of <a href="/wiki/James_Callaghan" title="James Callaghan">James Callaghan</a> occurred on 28 March 1979. The vote was brought by the <a href="/wiki/His_Majesty%27s_Most_Loyal_Opposition" title="His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition">Official Opposition</a> leader <a href="/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher" title="Margaret Thatcher">Margaret Thatcher</a> 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 href="/wiki/1979_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="1979 United Kingdom general election">a general election</a> that was won by Thatcher's <a href="/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)" title="Conservative Party (UK)">Conservative Party</a>. The last time an election had been forced by the <a href="/wiki/House_of_Commons_of_the_United_Kingdom" title="House of Commons of the United Kingdom">House of Commons</a> was in 1924, when <a href="/wiki/Ramsay_MacDonald" title="Ramsay MacDonald">Ramsay MacDonald</a>, the first Labour prime minister, lost a vote of confidence.<sup id="cite_ref-onthisday1_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-onthisday1-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Labour politician <a href="/wiki/Roy_Hattersley" title="Roy Hattersley">Roy Hattersley</a> later remarked that the vote marked "the <a href="/wiki/Last_rites" title="Last rites">last rites</a>" of <a href="/wiki/Old_Labour" class="mw-redirect" title="Old Labour">Old Labour</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-callaghan1979_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-callaghan1979-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Labour did not return to government for another eighteen years, with <a href="/wiki/New_Labour" title="New Labour">New Labour</a> ideology. The <a href="/wiki/BBC" title="BBC">BBC</a> has referred to the vote as "one of the most dramatic nights in Westminster history".<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Background">Background</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Background"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Further information: <a href="/wiki/February_1974_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="February 1974 United Kingdom general election">February 1974 United Kingdom general election</a>, <a href="/wiki/October_1974_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="October 1974 United Kingdom general election">October 1974 United Kingdom general election</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Winter_of_Discontent" title="Winter of Discontent">Winter of Discontent</a></div> <p>The general election at the end of February 1974 resulted in a <a href="/wiki/Hung_parliament" title="Hung parliament">hung parliament</a> where Labour had slightly more seats than any other <a href="/wiki/Political_party" title="Political party">party</a> but no overall majority. The <a href="/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)" title="Conservative Party (UK)">Conservatives</a> tried to negotiate a coalition with the <a href="/wiki/Liberal_Party_(UK)" title="Liberal Party (UK)">Liberal Party</a> but failed and <a href="/wiki/Edward_Heath" title="Edward Heath">Edward Heath</a>'s government resigned. <a href="/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)" title="Labour Party (UK)">Labour</a> came to power in March 1974, its leader <a href="/wiki/Harold_Wilson" title="Harold Wilson">Harold Wilson</a> having accepted the royal invitation to form a <a href="/wiki/Minority_government" title="Minority government">minority government</a>. 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 <a href="/wiki/Economic_stagnation" title="Economic stagnation">stagnation</a> and unemployment at record post-war levels. Wilson resigned in 1976 in poor health, on turning 60, and <a href="/wiki/James_Callaghan" title="James Callaghan">James Callaghan</a> 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 <a href="/wiki/Scottish_Labour_Party_(1976)" title="Scottish Labour Party (1976)">Scottish Labour Party</a> and the defection of backbencher <a href="/wiki/John_Stonehouse" title="John Stonehouse">John Stonehouse</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-bbc.co.uk_4-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-bbc.co.uk-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In 1977 the Labour government and the Liberal Party agreed to the <a href="/wiki/Lib%E2%80%93Lab_pact" title="Lib–Lab pact">Lib–Lab pact</a> 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,<sup id="cite_ref-bbc.co.uk_4-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-bbc.co.uk-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> 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 <a href="/wiki/Winter_of_Discontent" title="Winter of Discontent">Winter of Discontent</a> which severely reduced Labour's popularity.<sup id="cite_ref-bbc.co.uk_4-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-bbc.co.uk-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>On 14 December 1978, the government survived a <a href="/wiki/Vote_of_confidence" class="mw-redirect" title="Vote of confidence">vote of confidence</a> by ten votes after negotiating the support of the <a href="/wiki/Ulster_Unionists" class="mw-redirect" title="Ulster Unionists">Ulster Unionists</a>. Draft legislation was before the House to give Northern Ireland more parliamentary seats; it cleared the House of Commons on 17 January 1979. </p> <table class="wikitable"> <tbody><tr> <td colspan="3" bgcolor="#C0C0C0"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>14 December 1978<br />Vote of confidence in the <a href="/wiki/Callaghan_ministry" class="mw-redirect" title="Callaghan ministry">Callaghan ministry</a></b><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Motion proposed by <a href="/wiki/James_Callaghan" title="James Callaghan">James Callaghan</a> MP</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Absolute majority: 315/629</span></div> </td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#D8D8D8"> <td width="80px"><b>Vote</b> </td> <td width="425px"><b>Parties</b> </td> <td width="80px" align="center"><b>Votes</b> </td></tr> <tr> <td><span typeof="mw:File"><span><img alt="check" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Yes_check.svg/20px-Yes_check.svg.png" decoding="async" width="20" height="20" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Yes_check.svg/30px-Yes_check.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Yes_check.svg/40px-Yes_check.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="600" data-file-height="600" /></span></span><span style="display:none">Y</span> <b>Aye</b></td> <td><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><div class="hlist" style="font-size:85%;"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)" title="Labour Party (UK)">Labour Party</a> (295)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Plaid_Cymru" title="Plaid Cymru">Plaid Cymru</a> (2)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Ulster_Unionist_Party" title="Ulster Unionist Party">Ulster Unionist Party</a> (1)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Scottish_Labour_Party_(1976)" title="Scottish Labour Party (1976)">Scottish Labour Party</a> (2)</li></ul></div></td> <td><div style="width: 100px;"><span class="nowrap">300 / 635</span><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 1px solid #aaa; height: 1.15em; position: relative;"><div style="background-color: green; color:inherit; width: 47%; height: 100%;"></div></div></div> </td></tr> <tr> <td>No</td> <td><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><div class="hlist" style="font-size:85%;"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)" title="Conservative Party (UK)">Conservative Party</a> (267)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Liberal_Party_(UK)" title="Liberal Party (UK)">Liberal Party</a> (11)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Scottish_National_Party" title="Scottish National Party">Scottish National Party</a> (9)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Ulster_Unionist_Party" title="Ulster Unionist Party">Ulster Unionist Party</a> (1)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Democratic_Unionist_Party" title="Democratic Unionist Party">Democratic Unionist Party</a> (1)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Independent_politician" title="Independent politician">Independent</a> (1)</li></ul></div></td> <td><div style="width: 100px;"><span class="nowrap">290 / 635</span><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 1px solid #aaa; height: 1.15em; position: relative;"><div style="background-color: red; color:inherit; width: 46%; height: 100%;"></div></div></div> </td></tr> <tr> <td>Did not vote</td> <td><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><div class="hlist" style="font-size:85%;"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Speaker_of_the_House_of_Commons_(United_Kingdom)" title="Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)">Speaker of the House</a> (1)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Chairman_of_Ways_and_Means" title="Chairman of Ways and Means">Deputy Speakers of the House</a> (3)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)" title="Conservative Party (UK)">Conservative Party</a> (11)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)" title="Labour Party (UK)">Labour Party</a> (11)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Ulster_Unionist_Party" title="Ulster Unionist Party">Ulster Unionist Party</a> (5)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Liberal_Party_(UK)" title="Liberal Party (UK)">Liberal Party</a> (2)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Scottish_National_Party" title="Scottish National Party">Scottish National Party</a> (2)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Plaid_Cymru" title="Plaid Cymru">Plaid Cymru</a> (1)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Social_Democratic_and_Labour_Party" title="Social Democratic and Labour Party">Social Democratic and Labour Party</a> (1)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Independent_Republican_(Ireland)" title="Independent Republican (Ireland)">Independent Republican</a> (1)</li><li><a href="/wiki/United_Ulster_Unionist_Party" title="United Ulster Unionist Party">United Ulster Unionist Party</a> (1)</li></ul></div></td> <td><div style="width: 100px;"><span class="nowrap">39 / 635</span><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 1px solid #aaa; height: 1.15em; position: relative;"><div style="background-color: gray; color:inherit; width: 6%; height: 100%;"></div></div></div> </td></tr> <tr> <td><a href="/wiki/Tellers_(Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom)" class="mw-redirect" title="Tellers (Parliament of the United Kingdom)">Tellers</a></td> <td><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><div class="hlist" style="font-size:85%;"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)" title="Labour Party (UK)">Labour Party</a> (2)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)" title="Conservative Party (UK)">Conservative Party</a> (2); not counted in vote totals</li></ul></div></td> <td><div style="width: 100px;"><span class="nowrap">4 / 635</span><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 1px solid #aaa; height: 1.15em; position: relative;"><div style="background-color: gray; color:inherit; width: 0.6%; height: 100%;"></div></div></div> </td></tr> <tr> <td><i>Vacant</i></td> <td><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><div class="hlist" style="font-size:85%;"><ul><li>(2), not counted in vote totals</li></ul></div></td> <td><div style="width: 100px;"><span class="nowrap">2 / 635</span><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 1px solid #aaa; height: 1.15em; position: relative;"><div style="background-color: gray; color:inherit; width: 0.3%; height: 100%;"></div></div></div> </td></tr> </tbody></table> <p>On 1 March 1979, <a href="/wiki/1979_Scottish_devolution_referendum" title="1979 Scottish devolution referendum">a referendum on the Scotland Act</a> saw a majority vote for devolution, but a threshold imposed by anti-devolution MP <a href="/wiki/George_Cunningham_(British_politician)" title="George Cunningham (British politician)">George Cunningham</a> requiring 40% of the electorate to be in favour was not reached due to low turnout.<sup id="cite_ref-bbc.co.uk_4-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-bbc.co.uk-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> When the government decided not to implement the Act, the <a href="/wiki/Scottish_National_Party" title="Scottish National Party">Scottish National Party</a> 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, <a href="/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher" title="Margaret Thatcher">Margaret Thatcher</a>, put down an <a href="/wiki/Early_day_motion" title="Early day motion">early day motion</a> "[t]hat this House has no confidence in Her Majesty's Government."<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The government arranged for this motion to be debated on Wednesday 28 March as an opposition motion in government time.<sup id="cite_ref-bbc.co.uk_4-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-bbc.co.uk-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Motion_and_debate">Motion and debate</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Motion and debate"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1244412712">.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 32px}.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;margin-top:0}@media(min-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{padding-left:1.6em}}</style><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>"Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, 'That this House has no confidence in Her Majesty's Government.<span style="padding-right:.15em;">'</span>"<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p><div class="templatequotecite">— <cite>The motion moved by <a href="/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher" title="Margaret Thatcher">Margaret Thatcher</a></cite></div></blockquote> <p>During the debate, Callaghan criticised the <a href="/wiki/Scottish_National_Party" title="Scottish National Party">Scottish National Party</a>, 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. </p> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>We can truly say that once the Leader of the Opposition discovered what the Liberals and the SNP would do, she found the courage of their convictions. So, tonight, the Conservative Party, which wants the Act repealed and opposes even devolution, will march through the Lobby with the SNP, which wants independence for Scotland, and with the Liberals, who want to keep the Act. What a massive display of unsullied principle! The minority parties have walked into a trap. If they win, there will be a general election. I am told that the current joke going around the House is that it is the first time in recorded history that turkeys have been known to vote for an early Christmas.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p><div class="templatequotecite">— <cite><a href="/wiki/James_Callaghan" title="James Callaghan">James Callaghan</a> during the no-confidence debate</cite></div></blockquote> <p>As <a href="/wiki/Leader_of_the_House_of_Commons" title="Leader of the House of Commons">leader of the House of Commons</a>, <a href="/wiki/Michael_Foot" title="Michael Foot">Michael Foot</a> closed the debate. During his speech, he made a widely quoted put-down of Liberal leader <a href="/wiki/David_Steel" title="David Steel">David Steel</a>, describing him as having "passed from rising hope to elder statesman without any intervening period whatsoever".<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Vote">Vote</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Vote"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Votes_by_party_in_the_1979_vote_of_no_confidence_against_the_government_of_James_Callaghan.png" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Votes_by_party_in_the_1979_vote_of_no_confidence_against_the_government_of_James_Callaghan.png/220px-Votes_by_party_in_the_1979_vote_of_no_confidence_against_the_government_of_James_Callaghan.png" decoding="async" width="220" height="156" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Votes_by_party_in_the_1979_vote_of_no_confidence_against_the_government_of_James_Callaghan.png/330px-Votes_by_party_in_the_1979_vote_of_no_confidence_against_the_government_of_James_Callaghan.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Votes_by_party_in_the_1979_vote_of_no_confidence_against_the_government_of_James_Callaghan.png/440px-Votes_by_party_in_the_1979_vote_of_no_confidence_against_the_government_of_James_Callaghan.png 2x" data-file-width="491" data-file-height="349" /></a><figcaption>Top part of chart of votes by party (including tellers). Ayes: <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><div class="hlist inline"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)" title="Conservative Party (UK)">Conservative</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Liberal_Party_(UK)" title="Liberal Party (UK)">Liberal</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Scottish_National_Party" title="Scottish National Party">SNP</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Ulster_Unionist_Party" title="Ulster Unionist Party">UUP</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Democratic_Unionist_Party" title="Democratic Unionist Party">DUP</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/UUUP" class="mw-redirect" title="UUUP">UUUP</a></li></ul></div>. Noes: <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><div class="hlist inline"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)" title="Labour Party (UK)">Labour</a></li><li>UUP</li><li><a href="/wiki/Plaid_Cymru" title="Plaid Cymru">Plaid Cymru</a></li></ul></div>. First 250 Con/Lab votes not shown</figcaption></figure> <p>The government lost by one vote.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/James_Hamilton_(Scottish_politician)" title="James Hamilton (Scottish politician)">James Hamilton</a>, Labour's Scottish <a href="/wiki/Whip_(politics)" title="Whip (politics)">whip</a>, reportedly thought for a moment that the support of two Ulster Unionist MPs would allow the government a narrow victory.<sup id="cite_ref-GHp129March1979_11-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-GHp129March1979-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher" title="Margaret Thatcher">Margaret Thatcher</a> 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 <a href="/wiki/Speaker_of_the_House_of_Commons_(United_Kingdom)" title="Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)">Speaker of the House of Commons</a>, <a href="/wiki/George_Thomas,_1st_Viscount_Tonypandy" title="George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy">George Thomas</a>, would probably have followed <a href="/wiki/Speaker_Denison%27s_rule" title="Speaker Denison's rule">Speaker Denison's rule</a> and used his <a href="/wiki/Casting_vote" title="Casting vote">casting vote</a> in favour of the <i>status quo</i> and thus against the motion.<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Following the vote, Conservative backbenchers cheered while Labour left-wingers, led by <a href="/wiki/Neil_Kinnock" title="Neil Kinnock">Neil Kinnock</a>, sang "<a href="/wiki/The_Red_Flag" title="The Red Flag">The Red Flag</a>".<sup id="cite_ref-onthisday1_1-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-onthisday1-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-GHp129March1979_11-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-GHp129March1979-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <table class="wikitable"> <tbody><tr> <td colspan="3" bgcolor="#C0C0C0"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>28 March 1979<br />Vote of no confidence in the <a href="/wiki/Callaghan_ministry" class="mw-redirect" title="Callaghan ministry">Callaghan ministry</a></b><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Motion proposed by <a href="/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher" title="Margaret Thatcher">Margaret Thatcher</a> MP</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Absolute majority: 315/629</span></div> </td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#D8D8D8"> <td width="80px"><b>Vote</b> </td> <td width="425px"><b>Parties</b> </td> <td width="80px" align="center"><b>Votes</b><sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </td></tr> <tr> <td><span typeof="mw:File"><span><img alt="check" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Yes_check.svg/20px-Yes_check.svg.png" decoding="async" width="20" height="20" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Yes_check.svg/30px-Yes_check.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Yes_check.svg/40px-Yes_check.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="600" data-file-height="600" /></span></span><span style="display:none">Y</span> <b>Aye</b></td> <td><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><div class="hlist" style="font-size:85%;"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)" title="Conservative Party (UK)">Conservative Party</a> (279)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Liberal_Party_(UK)" title="Liberal Party (UK)">Liberal Party</a> (13)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Scottish_National_Party" title="Scottish National Party">Scottish National Party</a> (11)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Ulster_Unionist_Party" title="Ulster Unionist Party">Ulster Unionist Party</a> (5)</li><li><a href="/wiki/United_Ulster_Unionist_Party" title="United Ulster Unionist Party">United Ulster Unionist Party</a> (1)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Democratic_Unionist_Party" title="Democratic Unionist Party">Democratic Unionist Party</a> (1)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Independent_politician" title="Independent politician">Independent</a> (1, <a href="/wiki/James_Kilfedder" title="James Kilfedder">James Kilfedder</a>)</li></ul></div></td> <td><div style="width: 100px;"><span class="nowrap">311 / 635</span><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 1px solid #aaa; height: 1.15em; position: relative;"><div style="background-color: green; color:inherit; width: 49%; height: 100%;"></div></div></div> </td></tr> <tr> <td>No</td> <td><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><div class="hlist" style="font-size:85%;"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)" title="Labour Party (UK)">Labour Party</a> (303)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Plaid_Cymru" title="Plaid Cymru">Plaid Cymru</a> (3)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Ulster_Unionist_Party" title="Ulster Unionist Party">Ulster Unionist Party</a> (2)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Scottish_Labour_Party_(1976)" title="Scottish Labour Party (1976)">Scottish Labour Party</a> (2)</li></ul></div></td> <td><div style="width: 100px;"><span class="nowrap">310 / 635</span><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 1px solid #aaa; height: 1.15em; position: relative;"><div style="background-color: red; color:inherit; width: 49%; height: 100%;"></div></div></div> </td></tr> <tr> <td>Did not vote</td> <td><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><div class="hlist" style="font-size:85%;"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Speaker_of_the_House_of_Commons_(United_Kingdom)" title="Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)">Speaker of the House</a> (1)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Chairman_of_Ways_and_Means" title="Chairman of Ways and Means">Deputy Speakers of the House</a> (3)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)" title="Labour Party (UK)">Labour Party</a> (1, <a href="/wiki/Alfred_Broughton" title="Alfred Broughton">Sir Alfred Broughton</a>)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Social_Democratic_and_Labour_Party" title="Social Democratic and Labour Party">Social Democratic and Labour Party</a> (1, <a href="/wiki/Gerry_Fitt" title="Gerry Fitt">Gerry Fitt</a>)</li><li><a href="/wiki/Independent_Republican_(Ireland)" title="Independent Republican (Ireland)">Independent Republican</a> (1, <a href="/wiki/Frank_Maguire_(politician)" title="Frank Maguire (politician)">Frank Maguire</a>)</li></ul></div></td> <td><div style="width: 100px;"><span class="nowrap">7 / 635</span><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 1px solid #aaa; height: 1.15em; position: relative;"><div style="background-color: gray; color:inherit; width: 1%; height: 100%;"></div></div></div> </td></tr> <tr> <td><a href="/wiki/Tellers_(Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom)" class="mw-redirect" title="Tellers (Parliament of the United Kingdom)">Tellers</a></td> <td><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><div class="hlist" style="font-size:85%;"><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)" title="Labour Party (UK)">Labour Party</a> (2), <a href="/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)" title="Conservative Party (UK)">Conservative Party</a> (2); not counted in vote totals</li></ul></div></td> <td><div style="width: 100px;"><span class="nowrap">4 / 635</span><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 1px solid #aaa; height: 1.15em; position: relative;"><div style="background-color: gray; color:inherit; width: 0.6%; height: 100%;"></div></div></div> </td></tr> <tr> <td><i>Vacant</i></td> <td><small>(3), not counted in vote totals</small></td> <td><div style="width: 100px;"><span class="nowrap">3 / 635</span><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 1px solid #aaa; height: 1.15em; position: relative;"><div style="background-color: gray; color:inherit; width: 0.5%; height: 100%;"></div></div></div> </td></tr> </tbody></table> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Ulster_Unionists">Ulster Unionists</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Ulster Unionists"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Before the vote, there were some discussions between Labour and the <a href="/wiki/Ulster_Unionist_Party" title="Ulster Unionist Party">Ulster Unionist Party</a>, including <a href="/wiki/Enoch_Powell" title="Enoch Powell">Enoch Powell</a>, regarding a deal over a pipeline which would provide cheap energy to <a href="/wiki/Northern_Ireland" title="Northern Ireland">Northern Ireland</a>. 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.<sup id="cite_ref-walesonline1_14-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-walesonline1-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In the end, only two of the Ulster Unionists (<a href="/wiki/John_Carson_(Northern_Ireland_politician)" title="John Carson (Northern Ireland politician)">John Carson</a> and <a href="/wiki/Harold_McCusker" title="Harold McCusker">Harold McCusker</a>) voted for the government.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Sir_Alfred_Broughton">Sir Alfred Broughton</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Sir Alfred Broughton"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>One crucial vote was lost by Labour backbencher Sir <a href="/wiki/Alfred_Broughton" title="Alfred Broughton">Alfred Broughton</a>, who was unable to attend the vote due to ill health.<sup id="cite_ref-onthisday1_1-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-onthisday1-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Broughton (professionally a doctor) was mortally ill and died on 2 April, a few days after the vote, but he was determined to come to Westminster if it meant saving the government; 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. After a debate over what would happen if Broughton died <i>en route</i>, Callaghan decided that he would not risk Broughton's health by asking him to travel, a decision which was to bring down the government.<sup id="cite_ref-callaghan1979_2-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-callaghan1979-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Pairing_convention">Pairing convention</h4><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Pairing convention"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p><a href="/wiki/Bernard_Weatherill" title="Bernard Weatherill">Bernard Weatherill</a> played a critical role in the defeat of the government in the vote of confidence. As the vote loomed, Labour's deputy chief whip, <a href="/wiki/Walter_Harrison_(politician)" title="Walter Harrison (politician)">Walter Harrison</a>, approached Weatherill to enforce the <a href="/wiki/Pair_(parliamentary_convention)" title="Pair (parliamentary convention)">pairing</a> 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 <a href="/wiki/Matters_of_confidence" class="mw-redirect" title="Matters of confidence">matters of confidence</a> that meant the life or death of the government, and it would be impossible to find a Conservative MP who would agree to abstain. 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.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="margin-left:0.1em; white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Please_clarify" title="Wikipedia:Please clarify"><span title="The text near this tag may need clarification or removal of jargon. (August 2019)">clarification needed</span></a></i>]</sup> 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.<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Clement_Freud">Clement Freud</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Clement Freud"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>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 the Freedom of Information Act, long proposed by the <a href="/wiki/Liberal_Party_(UK)" title="Liberal Party (UK)">Liberal Party</a>; Callaghan himself was opposed to this kind of legislation. When the vote of no confidence came about, Liberal MP <a href="/wiki/Clement_Freud" title="Clement Freud">Clement Freud</a>, a long-time campaigner for <a href="/wiki/Freedom_of_information" title="Freedom of information">freedom of information</a>, 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.<sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Welsh_Nationalists">Welsh Nationalists</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: Welsh Nationalists"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p><a href="/wiki/Plaid_Cymru" title="Plaid Cymru">Plaid Cymru</a> supported the Labour government after extracting concessions from them.<sup id="cite_ref-walesonline1_14-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-walesonline1-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Irish_Nationalists">Irish Nationalists</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: Irish Nationalists"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Without Broughton, Labour needed the support of Northern Irish MPs to tie the vote. <a href="/wiki/Gerry_Fitt" title="Gerry Fitt">Gerry Fitt</a>, the leader of the <a href="/wiki/Social_Democratic_and_Labour_Party" title="Social Democratic and Labour Party">Social Democratic and Labour Party</a>, was sympathetic to the Labour Party, and <a href="/wiki/Frank_Maguire_(politician)" title="Frank Maguire (politician)">Frank Maguire</a>, an independent republican MP, had supported the government on previous knife-edge votes, but both 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 said that he would campaign for them to be re-elected if they lost.<sup id="cite_ref-walesonline1_14-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-walesonline1-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> He urged Maguire to do the same. Although not an <a href="/wiki/Abstentionist" class="mw-redirect" title="Abstentionist">abstentionist</a> MP, 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."<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-19"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-news.bbc.co.uk_20-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-news.bbc.co.uk-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The BBC documentary <i>A Parliamentary Coup</i> stated that 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.<sup id="cite_ref-news.bbc.co.uk_20-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-news.bbc.co.uk-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Aftermath">Aftermath</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: Aftermath"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951"><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Further information: <a href="/wiki/1979_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="1979 United Kingdom general election">1979 United Kingdom general election</a></div> <p>When a vote of no confidence is passed, the government must either a) resign, allowing the <a href="/wiki/Leader_of_the_Opposition_(United_Kingdom)" title="Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)">Leader of the Opposition</a> to attempt to form a government; or b) ask <a href="/wiki/The_Crown" title="The Crown">The Crown</a> for a <a href="/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom" title="Dissolution of the Parliament of the United Kingdom">dissolution of Parliament</a>, which automatically triggers a <a href="/wiki/General_election" title="General election">general election</a>. Callaghan opted for a general election, stating: "We shall take our case to the country." Parliament was not dissolved immediately after the vote; a couple of days' <a href="/wiki/Wash-up_period" title="Wash-up period">wash-up period</a> was allowed for the completion of uncontroversial business, with 25 bills receiving <a href="/wiki/Royal_assent" title="Royal assent">royal assent</a> on 2 April, including a stopgap <a href="/wiki/Finance_Act" title="Finance Act">Finance Act</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-21"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-22"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>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 <a href="/wiki/Michael_Foot" title="Michael Foot">Michael Foot</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>23<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The Scottish National Party also suffered in the 1979 general election, with its group reduced from 11 members to just two.<sup id="cite_ref-snp_24-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-snp-24"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>24<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The incoming Conservative government repealed the Scotland Act and devolution was not enacted until the <a href="/wiki/1997_Scottish_devolution_referendum" title="1997 Scottish devolution referendum">1997 Scottish devolution referendum</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-snp_24-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-snp-24"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>24<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit&section=11" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Norway_Debate" title="Norway Debate">Norway Debate</a>, another momentous Commons debate, 39 years earlier, which led to the appointment of <a href="/wiki/Winston_Churchill" title="Winston Churchill">Winston Churchill</a> as Prime Minister</li> <li><a href="/wiki/This_House_(play)" title="This House (play)"><i>This House</i></a>, a play by <a href="/wiki/James_Graham_(playwright)" title="James Graham (playwright)">James Graham</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-onthisday1-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-onthisday1_1-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-onthisday1_1-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-onthisday1_1-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite class="citation news cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/28/newsid_2531000/2531007.stm">"Early election as Callaghan defeated"</a>. BBC News. 28 March 1979. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090627165324/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/28/newsid_2531000/2531007.stm">Archived</a> from the original on 27 June 2009<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2 June</span> 2009</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Early+election+as+Callaghan+defeated&rft.date=1979-03-28&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2Fonthisday%2Fhi%2Fdates%2Fstories%2Fmarch%2F28%2Fnewsid_2531000%2F2531007.stm&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-callaghan1979-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-callaghan1979_2-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-callaghan1979_2-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation news cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/mar/22/james-callaghan-labour-1979-thatcher">"Roy Hattersley on the fall of James Callaghan's government"</a>. <i>The Observer</i>. Guardian News and Media. 22 March 2009<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2 June</span> 2009</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=The+Observer&rft.atitle=Roy+Hattersley+on+the+fall+of+James+Callaghan%27s+government&rft.date=2009-03-22&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2F2009%2Fmar%2F22%2Fjames-callaghan-labour-1979-thatcher&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation news cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7965501.stm">"The Night the Government Fell"</a>. <i>BBC News</i>. 26 March 2009<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">20 April</span> 2010</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=BBC+News&rft.atitle=The+Night+the+Government+Fell&rft.date=2009-03-26&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F1%2Fhi%2Fuk_politics%2F7965501.stm&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-bbc.co.uk-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-bbc.co.uk_4-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-bbc.co.uk_4-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-bbc.co.uk_4-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-bbc.co.uk_4-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-bbc.co.uk_4-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/politics97/background/pastelec/ge79.shtml">BBC Politics Summaries</a> – Background to the Vote of No Confidence</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">EDM (1978–79) 351.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1979/mar/28/her-majestys-government-opposition-motion#column_589">"Hansard, House of Commons, 5th series, vol. 965, col. 589"</a>. <i><a href="/wiki/Hansard" title="Hansard">Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)</a></i>. 28 March 1979<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2 October</span> 2013</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Parliamentary+Debates+%28Hansard%29&rft.atitle=Hansard%2C+House+of+Commons%2C+5th+series%2C+vol.+965%2C+col.+589&rft.date=1979-03-28&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.parliament.uk%2Fhistoric-hansard%2Fcommons%2F1979%2Fmar%2F28%2Fher-majestys-government-opposition-motion%23column_589&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1979/mar/28/her-majestys-government-opposition-motion#S5CV0965P0_19790328_HOC_190">"Hansard, House of Commons, 5th series, vol. 965, col. 471"</a>. <i><a href="/wiki/Hansard" title="Hansard">Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)</a></i>. 28 March 1979<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2 October</span> 2013</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Parliamentary+Debates+%28Hansard%29&rft.atitle=Hansard%2C+House+of+Commons%2C+5th+series%2C+vol.+965%2C+col.+471&rft.date=1979-03-28&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.parliament.uk%2Fhistoric-hansard%2Fcommons%2F1979%2Fmar%2F28%2Fher-majestys-government-opposition-motion%23S5CV0965P0_19790328_HOC_190&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFNelsson2010" class="citation news cs1">Nelsson, Richard (3 March 2010). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/mar/03/michael-foot-key-quotes">"Michael Foot: key quotes"</a>. <i>The Guardian</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">18 November</span> 2012</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=The+Guardian&rft.atitle=Michael+Foot%3A+key+quotes&rft.date=2010-03-03&rft.aulast=Nelsson&rft.aufirst=Richard&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2F2010%2Fmar%2F03%2Fmichael-foot-key-quotes&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFGrice2010" class="citation news cs1">Grice, Andrew (4 March 2010). <span class="id-lock-subscription" title="Paid subscription required"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/michael-foot-more-than-a-politician-a-man-of-deep-principle-1915825.html">"Michael Foot: More than a politician, a man of deep principle"</a></span>. <i>The Independent</i>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/michael-foot-more-than-a-politician-a-man-of-deep-principle-1915825.html">Archived</a> from the original on 1 May 2022<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">18 November</span> 2012</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=The+Independent&rft.atitle=Michael+Foot%3A+More+than+a+politician%2C+a+man+of+deep+principle&rft.date=2010-03-04&rft.aulast=Grice&rft.aufirst=Andrew&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fuk%2Fpolitics%2Fmichael-foot-more-than-a-politician-a-man-of-deep-principle-1915825.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090603092910/http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/prime-ministers-in-history/james-callaghan">"James Callaghan"</a>. Number10.gov.uk. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/prime-ministers-in-history/james-callaghan">the original</a> on 3 June 2009<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2 June</span> 2009</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=James+Callaghan&rft.pub=Number10.gov.uk&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.number10.gov.uk%2Fhistory-and-tour%2Fprime-ministers-in-history%2Fjames-callaghan&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-GHp129March1979-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-GHp129March1979_11-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-GHp129March1979_11-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFParkhouseTrotterRussell1979" class="citation news cs1">Parkhouse, Geoffrey; Trotter, Stuart; Russell, William (29 March 1979). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19790329&printsec=frontpage&hl=en">"Just one is enough! Thatcher says it with champagne"</a>. <i>The Glasgow Herald</i>. p. 1<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">4 July</span> 2021</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=The+Glasgow+Herald&rft.atitle=Just+one+is+enough%21+Thatcher+says+it+with+champagne&rft.pages=1&rft.date=1979-03-29&rft.aulast=Parkhouse&rft.aufirst=Geoffrey&rft.au=Trotter%2C+Stuart&rft.au=Russell%2C+William&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.com%2Fnewspapers%3Fnid%3DGGgVawPscysC%26dat%3D19790329%26printsec%3Dfrontpage%26hl%3Den&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=932&dat=19790329&id=tbQOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xIIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7143,7635681">"Kingman Daily Miner – Google News Archive Search"</a>. <i>news.google.com</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">20 September</span> 2016</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=news.google.com&rft.atitle=Kingman+Daily+Miner+%E2%80%93+Google+News+Archive+Search&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.com%2Fnewspapers%3Fnid%3D932%26dat%3D19790329%26id%3DtbQOAAAAIBAJ%26sjid%3DxIIDAAAAIBAJ%26pg%3D7143%2C7635681&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-13">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1979-03-28a.460.2">"Service Widows (Provision of Pensions): 28 Mar 1979: House of Commons debates"</a>. <i><a href="/wiki/TheyWorkForYou" title="TheyWorkForYou">TheyWorkForYou</a></i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">26 March</span> 2018</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=TheyWorkForYou&rft.atitle=Service+Widows+%28Provision+of+Pensions%29%3A+28+Mar+1979%3A+House+of+Commons+debates&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theyworkforyou.com%2Fdebates%2F%3Fid%3D1979-03-28a.460.2&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-walesonline1-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-walesonline1_14-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-walesonline1_14-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-walesonline1_14-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/03/28/it-could-be-worse-gordon-think-of-callaghan-in-79-91466-23250983/">"News – Wales News – It could be worse, Gordon. Think of Callaghan in '79"</a>. WalesOnline. 28 March 2009<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2 June</span> 2009</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=News+%E2%80%93+Wales+News+%E2%80%93+It+could+be+worse%2C+Gordon.+Think+of+Callaghan+in+%2779&rft.pub=WalesOnline&rft.date=2009-03-28&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.walesonline.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fwales-news%2F2009%2F03%2F28%2Fit-could-be-worse-gordon-think-of-callaghan-in-79-91466-23250983%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-15">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/mar/22/james-callaghan-labour-1979-thatcher">"Roy Hattersley on the fall of James Callaghan's government"</a>. <i><a href="/wiki/TheGuardian.com" class="mw-redirect" title="TheGuardian.com">TheGuardian.com</a></i>. 22 March 2009.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=TheGuardian.com&rft.atitle=Roy+Hattersley+on+the+fall+of+James+Callaghan%27s+government&rft.date=2009-03-22&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2F2009%2Fmar%2F22%2Fjames-callaghan-labour-1979-thatcher&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-16">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation news cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-46310032">"Former NI MPS recall another PM dependent on their votes"</a>. <i>BBC News</i>. 22 November 2018.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=BBC+News&rft.atitle=Former+NI+MPS+recall+another+PM+dependent+on+their+votes&rft.date=2018-11-22&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fuk-northern-ireland-46310032&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-17"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-17">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/3565551.stm"><i>The Night the Government Fell</i></a>, BBC archive on the 1979 vote of confidence, audio interview of Weatherill and Harrison</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-18"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-18">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2wGQfqQBMM#t=7m">"Youtube interview with Freud"</a>. Youtube.com. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211220/U2wGQfqQBMM">Archived</a> from the original on 20 December 2021<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2 October</span> 2013</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Youtube+interview+with+Freud&rft.pub=Youtube.com&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DU2wGQfqQBMM%23t%3D7m&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-19"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-19">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFMount1979" class="citation journal cs1">Mount, Ferdinand (7 April 1979). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/7th-april-1979/4/political-commentary">"The boycott and the bomb"</a>. <i>The Spectator</i>. <b>242</b> (7865): 4.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=The+Spectator&rft.atitle=The+boycott+and+the+bomb&rft.volume=242&rft.issue=7865&rft.pages=4&rft.date=1979-04-07&rft.aulast=Mount&rft.aufirst=Ferdinand&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Farchive.spectator.co.uk%2Farticle%2F7th-april-1979%2F4%2Fpolitical-commentary&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-news.bbc.co.uk-20"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-news.bbc.co.uk_20-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-news.bbc.co.uk_20-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation news cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7972582.stm">"The Night the Government Fell"</a>. <i>BBC News</i>. 31 March 2009<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">20 April</span> 2010</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=BBC+News&rft.atitle=The+Night+the+Government+Fell&rft.date=2009-03-31&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F1%2Fhi%2Fuk_politics%2F7972582.stm&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-21"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-21">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1979/apr/04/royal-assent">"HC Deb vol 965 c1394"</a>. <i><a href="/wiki/Hansard" title="Hansard">Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)</a></i>. 4 April 1979<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">14 November</span> 2014</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Parliamentary+Debates+%28Hansard%29&rft.atitle=HC+Deb+vol+965+c1394&rft.date=1979-04-04&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.parliament.uk%2Fhistoric-hansard%2Fcommons%2F1979%2Fapr%2F04%2Froyal-assent&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-22"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-22">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1979/apr/03/finance-bill">"HC Deb vol 965 cc1187-259"</a>. <i><a href="/wiki/Hansard" title="Hansard">Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)</a></i>. 3 April 1979<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">14 November</span> 2014</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Parliamentary+Debates+%28Hansard%29&rft.atitle=HC+Deb+vol+965+cc1187-259&rft.date=1979-04-03&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.parliament.uk%2Fhistoric-hansard%2Fcommons%2F1979%2Fapr%2F03%2Ffinance-bill&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-23"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-23">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation news cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/941478.stm">"Politics | Obituary: Lord Callaghan"</a>. BBC News. 26 March 2005<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2 June</span> 2009</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Politics+%26%23124%3B+Obituary%3A+Lord+Callaghan&rft.date=2005-03-26&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F1%2Fhi%2Fuk_politics%2F941478.stm&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-snp-24"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-snp_24-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-snp_24-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFBlack2012" class="citation web cs1">Black, Andrew (11 January 2012). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13315752">"Scottish National Party profile"</a>. <i>BBC News</i>. BBC<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">18 November</span> 2012</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=BBC+News&rft.atitle=Scottish+National+Party+profile&rft.date=2012-01-11&rft.aulast=Black&rft.aufirst=Andrew&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fuk-scotland-13315752&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3A1979+vote+of+no+confidence+in+the+Callaghan+ministry" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&action=edit&section=13" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1979/mar/28/her-majestys-government-opposition-motion">Hansard text of debate</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/mar/22/james-callaghan-labour-1979-thatcher">Roy Hattersley's account of the vote of no confidence</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7972582.stm">Archive material from the BBC</a></li></ul> <div class="navbox-styles"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236075235">.mw-parser-output .navbox{box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid #a2a9b1;width:100%;clear:both;font-size:88%;text-align:center;padding:1px;margin:1em auto 0}.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbox{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .navbox+.navbox,.mw-parser-output .navbox+.navbox-styles+.navbox{margin-top:-1px}.mw-parser-output .navbox-inner,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup{width:100%}.mw-parser-output .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-title,.mw-parser-output .navbox-abovebelow{padding:0.25em 1em;line-height:1.5em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .navbox-group{white-space:nowrap;text-align:right}.mw-parser-output .navbox,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup{background-color:#fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-list{line-height:1.5em;border-color:#fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-list-with-group{text-align:left;border-left-width:2px;border-left-style:solid}.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-group,.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-image,.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-list{border-top:2px solid #fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-title{background-color:#ccf}.mw-parser-output .navbox-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-title{background-color:#ddf}.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-abovebelow{background-color:#e6e6ff}.mw-parser-output .navbox-even{background-color:#f7f7f7}.mw-parser-output .navbox-odd{background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td dl,.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td ol,.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td ul,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist ul{padding:0.125em 0}.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbar{display:block;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .navbox-title .navbar{float:left;text-align:left;margin-right:0.5em}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .navbox-image img{max-width:none!important}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .navbox{display:none!important}}</style></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="James_Callaghan319" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks hlist mw-collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="3"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239400231"><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:James_Callaghan" title="Template:James Callaghan"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:James_Callaghan" title="Template talk:James Callaghan"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:James_Callaghan" title="Special:EditPage/Template:James Callaghan"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="James_Callaghan319" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/James_Callaghan" title="James Callaghan">James Callaghan</a></div></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Premiership</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Labour_government,_1974%E2%80%931979" title="Labour government, 1974–1979">1976–1979</a></li></ul> </div></td><td class="noviewer navbox-image" rowspan="8" style="width:1px;padding:0 0 0 2px"><div><figure class="mw-halign-right" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:James_Callaghan.JPG" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/James_Callaghan.JPG/100px-James_Callaghan.JPG" decoding="async" width="100" height="128" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/James_Callaghan.JPG/150px-James_Callaghan.JPG 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/James_Callaghan.JPG/200px-James_Callaghan.JPG 2x" data-file-width="1144" data-file-height="1468" /></a><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">General elections</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/1979_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="1979 United Kingdom general election">1979</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Referenda</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/1979_Scottish_devolution_referendum" title="1979 Scottish devolution referendum">1979 Scottish devolution referendum</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1979_Welsh_devolution_referendum" title="1979 Welsh devolution referendum">1979 Welsh devolution referendum</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Party elections</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/1960_Labour_Party_deputy_leadership_election" title="1960 Labour Party deputy leadership election">Deputy leadership 1960</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1963_Labour_Party_leadership_election_(UK)" title="1963 Labour Party leadership election (UK)">Leadership 1963</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1976_Labour_Party_leadership_election" title="1976 Labour Party leadership election">Leadership 1976</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Constituencies</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Cardiff_South_(UK_Parliament_constituency)" title="Cardiff South (UK Parliament constituency)">Cardiff South</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cardiff_South_East_(UK_Parliament_constituency)" title="Cardiff South East (UK Parliament constituency)">Cardiff South East</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cardiff_South_and_Penarth_(UK_Parliament_constituency)" title="Cardiff South and Penarth (UK Parliament constituency)">Cardiff South and Penarth</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Family</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Audrey_Callaghan" title="Audrey Callaghan">Audrey Callaghan</a> (wife)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Margaret_Jay,_Baroness_Jay_of_Paddington" title="Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington">Margaret Jay</a> (daughter)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Peter_Jay_(diplomat)" title="Peter Jay (diplomat)">Peter Jay</a> (son-in-law)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Cultural depictions</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Audience_(2013_play)" title="The Audience (2013 play)">The Audience</a></i> (Play, 2013)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Related articles</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/1976_sterling_crisis" title="1976 sterling crisis">1976 sterling crisis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Winter_of_Discontent" title="Winter of Discontent">Winter of Discontent</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">1979 vote of no confidence</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/April_1979_United_Kingdom_budget" title="April 1979 United Kingdom budget">1979 budget</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1979_Dissolution_Honours" title="1979 Dissolution Honours">Resignation Honours</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Father_of_the_House_(United_Kingdom)" title="Father of the House (United Kingdom)">Father of the House</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="3"><div> <ul><li>← <b><a href="/wiki/Harold_Wilson" title="Harold Wilson">Harold Wilson</a></b></li> <li><b><a href="/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher" title="Margaret Thatcher">Margaret Thatcher</a></b> →</li></ul> <ul><li><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><span title="Category"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/16px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="16" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/23px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/31px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="180" data-file-height="185" /></span></span> <a href="/wiki/Category:James_Callaghan" title="Category:James Callaghan">Category</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table></div> <div class="navbox-styles"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236075235"></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="Margaret_Thatcher908" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks hlist mw-collapsible mw-collapsed navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="3"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239400231"><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Margaret_Thatcher" title="Template:Margaret Thatcher"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Margaret_Thatcher" title="Template talk:Margaret Thatcher"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Margaret_Thatcher" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Margaret Thatcher"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="Margaret_Thatcher908" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher" title="Margaret Thatcher">Margaret Thatcher</a></div></th></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="3"><div> <ul><li><span class="nowrap"><a href="/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom" title="Prime Minister of the United Kingdom">Prime Minister of the United Kingdom</a> (1979–1990)</span></li> <li><span class="nowrap"><a href="/wiki/Leader_of_the_Conservative_Party_(UK)" title="Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)">Leader of the Conservative Party</a> (1975–1990)</span></li> <li><span class="nowrap">MP for <a href="/wiki/Finchley_(UK_Parliament_constituency)" title="Finchley (UK Parliament constituency)">Finchley</a> (1959–1992)</span></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Member of Parliament</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Public_Bodies_(Admission_to_Meetings)_Act_1960" title="Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960">Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act (1960)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Circular_10/70" title="Circular 10/70">Circular 10/70</a> (1970)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Shadow_Cabinet_of_Margaret_Thatcher" title="Shadow Cabinet of Margaret Thatcher">Shadow Cabinet</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Britain_Awake" title="Britain Awake">"Britain Awake" (1976)</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry (1979)</a></li></ul> </div></td><td class="noviewer navbox-image" rowspan="9" style="width:1px;padding:0 0 0 2px"><div><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Margaret_Thatcher_(1983).jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Margaret_Thatcher_%281983%29.jpg/85px-Margaret_Thatcher_%281983%29.jpg" decoding="async" width="85" height="113" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Margaret_Thatcher_%281983%29.jpg/128px-Margaret_Thatcher_%281983%29.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Margaret_Thatcher_%281983%29.jpg/170px-Margaret_Thatcher_%281983%29.jpg 2x" data-file-width="2444" data-file-height="3259" /></a></span></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Ideology</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Thatcherism" title="Thatcherism">Thatcherism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Conservatism" title="Conservatism">Conservatism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_market" title="Free market">Free market</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Union_democracy" title="Union democracy">Union democracy</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Premiership_of_Margaret_Thatcher" title="Premiership of Margaret Thatcher">Premiership</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/List_of_ministers_under_Margaret_Thatcher" title="List of ministers under Margaret Thatcher">Ministers</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Wets_and_dries" title="Wets and dries">wets and dries</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cold_War" title="Cold War">Cold War</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Cold_War_(1979%E2%80%931985)" title="Cold War (1979–1985)">1st term</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cold_War_(1985%E2%80%931991)" title="Cold War (1985–1991)">2nd–3rd term</a></li></ul></li></ul> </div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%;font-weight:normal"><a href="/wiki/First_Thatcher_ministry" title="First Thatcher ministry">1st ministry<br />(1979–1983)</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/June_1979_United_Kingdom_budget" title="June 1979 United Kingdom budget">Budget (1979)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1980_United_Kingdom_budget" title="1980 United Kingdom budget">Budget (1980)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/The_lady%27s_not_for_turning" title="The lady's not for turning">"The lady's not for turning" (1980)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1981_United_Kingdom_budget" title="1981 United Kingdom budget">Budget (1981)</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Gang_of_25" title="Gang of 25">Gang of 25</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1981_Irish_hunger_strike" title="1981 Irish hunger strike">Irish hunger strike (1981)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1982_United_Kingdom_budget" title="1982 United Kingdom budget">Budget (1982)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Falklands_War" title="Falklands War">Falklands War</a> (1982) <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Rejoice_(Margaret_Thatcher)" title="Rejoice (Margaret Thatcher)">"Rejoice"</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sinking_of_the_ARA_General_Belgrano" title="Sinking of the ARA General Belgrano">sinking of the ARA <i>General Belgrano</i></a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Diana_Gould%E2%80%93Margaret_Thatcher_exchange" title="Diana Gould–Margaret Thatcher exchange">Diana Gould exchange</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/White_flags_over_Port_Stanley" title="White flags over Port Stanley">"White flags over Port Stanley"</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1983_United_Kingdom_budget" title="1983 United Kingdom budget">Budget (1983)</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%;font-weight:normal"><a href="/wiki/Second_Thatcher_ministry" title="Second Thatcher ministry">2nd ministry<br />(1983–1987)</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/1984_United_Kingdom_budget" title="1984 United Kingdom budget">Budget (1984)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Brighton_hotel_bombing" title="Brighton hotel bombing">Brighton hotel bombing</a> (1984)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/GCHQ_trade_union_ban" title="GCHQ trade union ban">GCHQ trade union ban</a> (1984) <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Council_of_Civil_Service_Unions_v_Minister_for_the_Civil_Service" title="Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service">CCSU case</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1984%E2%80%931985_United_Kingdom_miners%27_strike" title="1984–1985 United Kingdom miners' strike">Miners' strike (1984–85)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1985_United_Kingdom_budget" title="1985 United Kingdom budget">Budget (1985)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anglo-Irish_Agreement" title="Anglo-Irish Agreement">Anglo-Irish Agreement</a> (1985)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Local_Government_Act_1985" title="Local Government Act 1985">Local Government Act (1985)</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Rate-capping_rebellion" title="Rate-capping rebellion">rate-capping rebellion</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Westland_affair" title="Westland affair">Westland affair</a> (1986)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/1986_United_Kingdom_budget" title="1986 United Kingdom budget">Budget (1986)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1987_United_Kingdom_budget" title="1987 United Kingdom budget">Budget (1987)</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%;font-weight:normal"><a href="/wiki/Third_Thatcher_ministry" title="Third Thatcher ministry">3rd ministry<br />(1987–1990)</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/1988_United_Kingdom_budget" title="1988 United Kingdom budget">Budget (1988)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1988%E2%80%931994_British_broadcasting_voice_restrictions" title="1988–1994 British broadcasting voice restrictions">Broadcasting restrictions (1988)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sermon_on_the_Mound" title="Sermon on the Mound">"Sermon on the Mound" (1988)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Bruges_speech" title="Bruges speech">Bruges speech</a> (1988)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/1989_United_Kingdom_budget" title="1989 United Kingdom budget">Budget (1989)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Poll_tax_(Great_Britain)" title="Poll tax (Great Britain)">Community Charge (1989–90)</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Poll_tax_riots" title="Poll tax riots">Poll tax riots</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1990_United_Kingdom_budget" title="1990 United Kingdom budget">Budget (1990)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gulf_War" title="Gulf War">Gulf War</a> (1990)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/No._No._No._(Margaret_Thatcher)" title="No. No. No. (Margaret Thatcher)">"No. No. No." (1990)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1990_Prime_Minister%27s_Resignation_Honours" title="1990 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours">Resignation Honours (1990)</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Electoral_history_of_Margaret_Thatcher#Conservative_Party_leadership_elections" title="Electoral history of Margaret Thatcher">Party elections</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/1975_Conservative_Party_leadership_election" title="1975 Conservative Party leadership election">1975</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1989_Conservative_Party_leadership_election" title="1989 Conservative Party leadership election">1989</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1990_Conservative_Party_leadership_election" title="1990 Conservative Party leadership election">1990</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Electoral_history_of_Margaret_Thatcher#United_Kingdom_general_elections" title="Electoral history of Margaret Thatcher">General elections</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/1979_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="1979 United Kingdom general election">1979</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1983_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="1983 United Kingdom general election">1983</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1987_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="1987 United Kingdom general election">1987</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Bibliography_of_Margaret_Thatcher" title="Bibliography of Margaret Thatcher">Books</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Downing_Street_Years" title="The Downing Street Years">The Downing Street Years</a></i> (1993 autobiography)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Path_to_Power_(Thatcher_book)" title="The Path to Power (Thatcher book)">The Path to Power</a></i> (1995 memoir)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Statecraft:_Strategies_for_a_Changing_World" title="Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World">Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World</a></i> (2003)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Family</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Denis_Thatcher" title="Denis Thatcher">Denis Thatcher</a> (husband) <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Thatcher_baronets" title="Thatcher baronets">baronetcy</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mark_Thatcher" title="Mark Thatcher">Mark Thatcher</a> (son)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Carol_Thatcher" title="Carol Thatcher">Carol Thatcher</a> (daughter)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Alfred_Roberts" title="Alfred Roberts">Alfred Roberts</a> (father)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/We_have_become_a_grandmother" title="We have become a grandmother">We have become a grandmother</a>" (1989)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_Margaret_Thatcher" title="Cultural depictions of Margaret Thatcher">Cultural depictions</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Film and<br />television</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/Anyone_for_Denis%3F_(video)" title="Anyone for Denis? (video)">Anyone for Denis?</a></i> (1982 TV play)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Spitting_Image" title="Spitting Image">Spitting Image</a></i> (1984–1996 & 2020 TV series)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_New_Statesman_(1987_TV_series)" title="The New Statesman (1987 TV series)">The New Statesman</a></i> (1987–1991 TV series)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Thatcher:_The_Final_Days" title="Thatcher: The Final Days">Thatcher: The Final Days</a></i> (1991 film)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Falklands_Play" title="The Falklands Play">The Falklands Play</a></i> (2002 play)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Jeffrey_Archer:_The_Truth" title="Jeffrey Archer: The Truth">Jeffrey Archer: The Truth</a></i> (2002 TV film)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Alan_Clark_Diaries" title="The Alan Clark Diaries">The Alan Clark Diaries</a></i> (2004 TV series)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Pinochet_in_Suburbia" title="Pinochet in Suburbia">Pinochet in Suburbia</a></i> (2006 docudrama)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Long_Walk_to_Finchley" title="The Long Walk to Finchley">The Long Walk to Finchley</a></i> (2008 film)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Margaret_(2009_film)" title="Margaret (2009 film)">Margaret</a></i> (2009 film)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Queen_(British_TV_serial)" title="The Queen (British TV serial)">The Queen</a></i> (2009 TV serial)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Iron_Lady_(film)" title="The Iron Lady (film)">The Iron Lady</a></i> (2011 film)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Hunt_for_Tony_Blair" title="The Hunt for Tony Blair">The Hunt for Tony Blair</a></i> (2011 episode)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/In_Search_of_La_Che" title="In Search of La Che">In Search of La Che</a></i> (2011 film)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Crown_season_4" title="The Crown season 4">The Crown</a></i> (2020 TV series)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Reagan_(2024_film)" title="Reagan (2024 film)">Reagan</a></i> (2024 film)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Plays</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/Handbagged" title="Handbagged">Handbagged</a></i> (2010, 2013)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Audience_(2013_play)" title="The Audience (2013 play)">The Audience</a></i> (2013)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Statues</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Statue_of_Margaret_Thatcher_(London_Guildhall)" title="Statue of Margaret Thatcher (London Guildhall)">London Guildhall (1998)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Statue_of_Margaret_Thatcher_(Palace_of_Westminster)" title="Statue of Margaret Thatcher (Palace of Westminster)">Palace of Westminster (2007)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Statue_of_Margaret_Thatcher_(Grantham)" title="Statue of Margaret Thatcher (Grantham)">Grantham (2022)</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Paintings</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Portrait_of_Margaret_Thatcher" title="Portrait of Margaret Thatcher">Richard Stone portrait</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Related</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Blatcherism" title="Blatcherism">Blatcherism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Death_and_funeral_of_Margaret_Thatcher" title="Death and funeral of Margaret Thatcher">Death and funeral</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_honours_of_Margaret_Thatcher" class="mw-redirect" title="List of honours of Margaret Thatcher">Honours</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Thatchergate" title="Thatchergate">Thatchergate</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="3"><div> <ul><li>← <b><a href="/wiki/James_Callaghan" title="James Callaghan">James Callaghan</a></b></li> <li><b><a href="/wiki/John_Major" title="John Major">John Major</a></b> →</li></ul> <ul><li><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><span title="Category"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/16px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="16" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/23px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/31px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="180" data-file-height="185" /></span></span> <a href="/wiki/Category:Margaret_Thatcher" title="Category:Margaret Thatcher">Category</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table></div> <div class="navbox-styles"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236075235"></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="1979_United_Kingdom_general_election499" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks hlist mw-collapsible mw-collapsed navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="2"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239400231"><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:1979_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="Template:1979 United Kingdom general election"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:1979_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="Template talk:1979 United Kingdom general election"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:1979_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="Special:EditPage/Template:1979 United Kingdom general election"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="1979_United_Kingdom_general_election499" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/1979_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="1979 United Kingdom general election">1979 United Kingdom general election</a></div></th></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="2"><div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/List_of_MPs_elected_in_the_1979_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="List of MPs elected in the 1979 United Kingdom general election">MPs elected</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/List_of_MPs_for_constituencies_in_Scotland_(1979%E2%80%931983)#List" title="List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (1979–1983)">Scotland</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_MPs_for_constituencies_in_Wales_(1979%E2%80%931983)" title="List of MPs for constituencies in Wales (1979–1983)">Wales</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_1979_United_Kingdom_general_election" title="Opinion polling for the 1979 United Kingdom general election">Opinion polling</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0;background: #ddddff;"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li>Incumbent <a href="/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom" title="Prime Minister of the United Kingdom">prime minister</a>: <a href="/wiki/James_Callaghan" title="James Callaghan">James Callaghan</a> (<a href="/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)" title="Labour Party (UK)">Labour</a>)</li> <li>Appointed prime minister: <a href="/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher" title="Margaret Thatcher">Margaret Thatcher</a> (<a href="/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)" title="Conservative Party (UK)">Conservative</a>)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Parties elected to<br /> the <a href="/wiki/House_of_Commons_of_the_United_Kingdom" title="House of Commons of the United Kingdom">House of Commons</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)" title="Conservative Party (UK)">Conservative</a> (<a href="/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher" title="Margaret Thatcher">Margaret Thatcher</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)" title="Labour Party (UK)">Labour</a> (<a href="/wiki/James_Callaghan" title="James Callaghan">James Callaghan</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Liberal_Party_(UK)" title="Liberal Party (UK)">Liberal</a> (<a href="/wiki/David_Steel" title="David Steel">David Steel</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ulster_Unionist_Party" title="Ulster Unionist Party">Ulster Unionist Party</a> (<a href="/wiki/Harry_West" title="Harry West">Harry West</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Democratic_Unionist_Party" title="Democratic Unionist Party">Democratic Unionist Party</a> (<a href="/wiki/Ian_Paisley" title="Ian Paisley">Ian Paisley</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Scottish_National_Party" title="Scottish National Party">Scottish National Party</a> (<a href="/wiki/Billy_Wolfe_(politician)" title="Billy Wolfe (politician)">William Wolfe</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Plaid_Cymru" title="Plaid Cymru">Plaid Cymru</a> (<a href="/wiki/Gwynfor_Evans" title="Gwynfor Evans">Gwynfor Evans</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Social_Democratic_and_Labour_Party" title="Social Democratic and Labour Party">Social Democratic and Labour Party</a> (<a href="/wiki/Gerry_Fitt" title="Gerry Fitt">Gerry Fitt</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/United_Ulster_Unionist_Party" title="United Ulster Unionist Party">United Ulster Unionist Party</a> (<a href="/wiki/Ernest_Baird" title="Ernest Baird">Ernest Baird</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ulster_Popular_Unionist_Party" title="Ulster Popular Unionist Party">Ulster Popular Unionist Party</a> (<a href="/wiki/James_Kilfedder" title="James Kilfedder">James Kilfedder</a>)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Results by area</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/1979_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_England" title="1979 United Kingdom general election in England">England</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1979_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_Northern_Ireland" title="1979 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland">Northern Ireland</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1979_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_Scotland" title="1979 United Kingdom general election in Scotland">Scotland</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1979_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_Wales" title="1979 United Kingdom general election in Wales">Wales</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">See also</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Thorpe_affair" title="Thorpe affair">Thorpe affair</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Labour_Isn%27t_Working" title="Labour Isn't Working">Labour Isn't Working</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Winter_of_Discontent" title="Winter of Discontent">Winter of Discontent</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1979_Scottish_devolution_referendum" title="1979 Scottish devolution referendum">1979 Scottish devolution referendum</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/1979_Welsh_devolution_referendum" title="1979 Welsh devolution referendum">1979 Welsh devolution referendum</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Assassination_of_Airey_Neave" title="Assassination of Airey Neave">Assassination of Airey Neave</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Thatcherism" title="Thatcherism">Thatcherism</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="2"><div><a href="/wiki/1979_United_Kingdom_local_elections" title="1979 United Kingdom local elections">1979 United Kingdom local elections</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div>    </div><noscript><img src="https://login.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?useformat=desktop&type=1x1&usesul3=0" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; position: absolute;"></noscript> <div class="printfooter" data-nosnippet="">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&oldid=1272291028">https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&oldid=1272291028</a>"</div></div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="/wiki/Help:Category" title="Help:Category">Categories</a>: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Votes_of_no_confidence_in_the_United_Kingdom" title="Category:Votes of no confidence in the United Kingdom">Votes of no confidence in the United Kingdom</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:1979_in_British_politics" title="Category:1979 in British politics">1979 in British politics</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:James_Callaghan" title="Category:James Callaghan">James Callaghan</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:March_1979_in_the_United_Kingdom" title="Category:March 1979 in the United Kingdom">March 1979 in the United Kingdom</a></li></ul></div><div id="mw-hidden-catlinks" class="mw-hidden-catlinks mw-hidden-cats-hidden">Hidden categories: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Articles_with_short_description" title="Category:Articles with short description">Articles with short description</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Short_description_is_different_from_Wikidata" title="Category:Short description is different from Wikidata">Short description is different from Wikidata</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Use_British_English_from_March_2012" title="Category:Use British English from March 2012">Use British English from March 2012</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Use_dmy_dates_from_March_2019" title="Category:Use dmy dates from March 2019">Use dmy dates from March 2019</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_articles_needing_clarification_from_August_2019" title="Category:Wikipedia articles needing clarification from August 2019">Wikipedia articles needing clarification from August 2019</a></li></ul></div></div> </div> </main> </div> <div class="mw-footer-container"> <footer id="footer" class="mw-footer" > <ul id="footer-info"> <li id="footer-info-lastmod"> This page was last edited on 27 January 2025, at 23:41<span class="anonymous-show"> (UTC)</span>.</li> <li id="footer-info-copyright">Text is available under the <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_4.0_International_License" title="Wikipedia:Text of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License</a>; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the <a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Terms_of_Use" class="extiw" title="foundation:Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Terms of Use">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy_policy" class="extiw" title="foundation:Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy policy">Privacy Policy</a>. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/">Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.</a>, a non-profit organization.</li> </ul> <ul id="footer-places"> <li id="footer-places-privacy"><a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy_policy">Privacy policy</a></li> <li id="footer-places-about"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:About">About Wikipedia</a></li> <li id="footer-places-disclaimers"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer">Disclaimers</a></li> <li id="footer-places-contact"><a href="//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contact_us">Contact Wikipedia</a></li> <li id="footer-places-wm-codeofconduct"><a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Universal_Code_of_Conduct">Code of Conduct</a></li> <li id="footer-places-developers"><a href="https://developer.wikimedia.org">Developers</a></li> <li id="footer-places-statslink"><a href="https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/en.wikipedia.org">Statistics</a></li> <li id="footer-places-cookiestatement"><a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Cookie_statement">Cookie statement</a></li> <li id="footer-places-mobileview"><a href="//en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry&mobileaction=toggle_view_mobile" class="noprint stopMobileRedirectToggle">Mobile view</a></li> </ul> <ul id="footer-icons" class="noprint"> <li id="footer-copyrightico"><a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--size-large cdx-button--fake-button--enabled"><img src="/static/images/footer/wikimedia-button.svg" width="84" height="29" alt="Wikimedia Foundation" lang="en" loading="lazy"></a></li> <li id="footer-poweredbyico"><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--size-large cdx-button--fake-button--enabled"><picture><source media="(min-width: 500px)" srcset="/w/resources/assets/poweredby_mediawiki.svg" width="88" height="31"><img src="/w/resources/assets/mediawiki_compact.svg" alt="Powered by MediaWiki" width="25" height="25" loading="lazy"></picture></a></li> </ul> </footer> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-header-container vector-sticky-header-container"> <div id="vector-sticky-header" class="vector-sticky-header"> <div class="vector-sticky-header-start"> <div class="vector-sticky-header-icon-start vector-button-flush-left vector-button-flush-right" aria-hidden="true"> <button class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-sticky-header-search-toggle" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="ui.vector-sticky-search-form.icon"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-search mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-search"></span> <span>Search</span> </button> </div> <div role="search" class="vector-search-box-vue vector-search-box-show-thumbnail vector-search-box"> <div class="vector-typeahead-search-container"> <div class="cdx-typeahead-search cdx-typeahead-search--show-thumbnail"> <form action="/w/index.php" id="vector-sticky-search-form" class="cdx-search-input cdx-search-input--has-end-button"> <div class="cdx-search-input__input-wrapper" data-search-loc="header-moved"> <div class="cdx-text-input cdx-text-input--has-start-icon"> <input class="cdx-text-input__input" type="search" name="search" placeholder="Search Wikipedia"> <span class="cdx-text-input__icon cdx-text-input__start-icon"></span> </div> <input type="hidden" name="title" value="Special:Search"> </div> <button class="cdx-button cdx-search-input__end-button">Search</button> </form> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-header-context-bar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-sticky-header-toc" class="vector-dropdown mw-portlet mw-portlet-sticky-header-toc vector-sticky-header-toc vector-button-flush-left" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-sticky-header-toc-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-sticky-header-toc" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Toggle the table of contents" > <label id="vector-sticky-header-toc-label" for="vector-sticky-header-toc-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-listBullet mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-listBullet"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Toggle the table of contents</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-sticky-header-toc-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <div class="vector-sticky-header-context-bar-primary" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="mw-page-title-main">1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry</span></div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-header-end" aria-hidden="true"> <div class="vector-sticky-header-icons"> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-talk-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="talk-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-speechBubbles mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-speechBubbles"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-subject-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="subject-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-article mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-article"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-history-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="history-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-history mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-history"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only mw-watchlink" id="ca-watchstar-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="watch-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-star mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-star"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-edit-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="wikitext-edit-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikiText mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-wikiText"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-ve-edit-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="ve-edit-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-edit mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-edit"></span> <span></span> </a> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only" id="ca-viewsource-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="ve-edit-protected-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-editLock mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-editLock"></span> <span></span> </a> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-header-buttons"> <button class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet mw-interlanguage-selector" id="p-lang-btn-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-p-lang-btn-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-language mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-wikimedia-language"></span> <span>Add languages</span> </button> <a href="#" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--action-progressive" id="ca-addsection-sticky-header" tabindex="-1" data-event-name="addsection-sticky-header"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-speechBubbleAdd-progressive mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-speechBubbleAdd-progressive"></span> <span>Add topic</span> </a> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-header-icon-end"> <div class="vector-user-links"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-settings" id="p-dock-bottom"> <ul></ul> </div><script>(RLQ=window.RLQ||[]).push(function(){mw.config.set({"wgHostname":"mw-web.codfw.main-b766959bd-gtx7d","wgBackendResponseTime":213,"wgPageParseReport":{"limitreport":{"cputime":"0.653","walltime":"0.836","ppvisitednodes":{"value":3540,"limit":1000000},"postexpandincludesize":{"value":130428,"limit":2097152},"templateargumentsize":{"value":6691,"limit":2097152},"expansiondepth":{"value":14,"limit":100},"expensivefunctioncount":{"value":8,"limit":500},"unstrip-depth":{"value":1,"limit":20},"unstrip-size":{"value":140838,"limit":5000000},"entityaccesscount":{"value":1,"limit":400},"timingprofile":["100.00% 711.933 1 -total"," 29.38% 209.199 1 Template:Reflist"," 20.21% 143.916 1 Template:James_Callaghan_sidebar"," 19.79% 140.879 1 Template:Sidebar/UK_Prime_Minister"," 19.28% 137.238 1 Template:Sidebar_person"," 17.41% 123.942 9 Template:Cite_news"," 10.35% 73.709 1 Template:Short_description"," 10.20% 72.649 5 Template:Navbox"," 6.82% 48.545 11 Template:Cite_web"," 6.47% 46.038 2 Template:Pagetype"]},"scribunto":{"limitreport-timeusage":{"value":"0.364","limit":"10.000"},"limitreport-memusage":{"value":8295859,"limit":52428800}},"cachereport":{"origin":"mw-web.codfw.main-7b9b8ffd89-5vg6v","timestamp":"20250211214122","ttl":2592000,"transientcontent":false}}});});</script> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Article","name":"1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry","url":"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry","sameAs":"http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q4579001","mainEntity":"http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q4579001","author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Contributors to Wikimedia projects"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.wikimedia.org\/static\/images\/wmf-hor-googpub.png"}},"datePublished":"2009-05-31T14:59:24Z","dateModified":"2025-01-27T23:41:40Z","image":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/e\/e4\/James_Callaghan_%281977%29.jpg","headline":"1979 political event in the UK"}</script> </body> </html>