| ||
---|---|---|
Wilson's Cabinet
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
![]() |
||
A vote of no confidence in the British Labour government of James Callaghan occurred on 28 March 1979. The vote was brought by the Official Opposition leader Margaret Thatcher and was lost by the Labour government by one vote (311 votes to 310), which was announced at 10:19 pm. The result mandated a general election that was won by Thatcher's Conservative Party. The last time an election had been forced by the House of Commons was in 1924, when Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour prime minister, lost a vote of confidence.[1] Labour politician Roy Hattersley later remarked that the vote marked "the last rites" of Old Labour.[2] Labour did not return to government for another 18 years, with New Labour ideology. The BBC has referred to the vote as "one of the most dramatic nights in Westminster history".[3]