List of Government defeats in the House of Commons (1945-present)

The following article is a list of government defeats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on whipped votes since 1945. (Votes on private member's bills, private bills and internal matters of the House of Commons are not whipped votes and so are not listed below).

Most government defeats since World War II have occurred in periods of minority government or where the government has a small majority. Government defeats have been caused by backbench rebellions and by opposition parties voting against a government when they had more MPs present in the House of Commons.

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

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

Alec Douglas-Home's Government suffered no defeats in the House of Commons.

Edward Heath's government suffered six defeats in the House of Commons during its four years in office.

Harold Wilson's second government suffered 25 defeats in the House of Commons between 1974 and 1976. The majority of these defeats, 18 in total, occurred in June and July 1974, when Wilson did not have a majority in the House of Commons after the February 1974 general election produced a hung parliament. Wilson called a further general election in October 1974 in an attempt to gain a majority. He did, however this majority was just three seats.

Jim Callaghan’s government suffered 34 defeats in the House of Commons during its three years in office. Callaghan’s government was a minority one for virtually all of its existence, after the former cabinet minister John Stonehouse resigned from the Labour party just two days after Callaghan became Prime Minister, leaving Labour one seat short of an overall majority in the House of Commons.

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