Vote of No-Confidence

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A Vote of no-confidence is a function of parliamentary government in which the ruling party's leader (which typically is the leader of the country, e.g. a Prime Minister) or the party itself does not have the confidence of the parliament. The outcome is usually either the replacement of the leader with a candidate who does hold the confidence of the elected members, or dissolve government and trigger immediate elections. This is somewhat similar to the process of a presidential impeachment in the USA, though impeachment is typically reserved for crimes and not merely disapproval.

[edit] In the UK Parliament

Since by convention the Government holds office only while he enjoys the confidence of the House of Commons, if a motion is passed that "This House has no confidence in Her Majesty's Government" is passed, the Government must fall, and either be replaced by a Government which can command the confidence of the House, or Parliament must be dissolved and a General Election held. In modern times this occurred only in 1979, when after a referendum on Scottish devolution failed to meet the required majority, the Scottish National Party voted with the then-opposition Conservative Party to bring down the Labour administration of James Callaghan because the Government refused to introduce devolution anyway. The Conservatives were implacably opposed to devolution, and since they seemed certain to win the General Election (which indeed they did) the SNP's decision was described as "like turkeys voting for an early Christmas."

The John Major administration called a motion of confidence in itself as a procedural device to secure the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty by the Commons.

The Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011 [1] provides that a General Election must be held after a vote of no confidence is passed in the Commons, unless a further vote that the House does have confidence is passed within 14 days (for example, if a new Government has been formed).

[edit] External Links

  1. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/14/enacted
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