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1979 vote of no confidence in the government of James Callaghan
A vote of no confidence in the British Labour Government of James Callaghan occurred on 28 March 1979. The vote was brought by 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, forcing a general election which was won by Thatcher's 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. Labour politician Roy Hattersley was later to remark that the vote marked "the last rites" of 'old Labour'. Labour would not return to government for another 18 years. The BBC has referred to the vote as "one of the most dramatic nights in Westminster history".
==Background==
The general election at the end of February 1974 resulted in a hung parliament where Labour had slightly more seats than any other party but no overall majority. The Conservatives tried to negotiate a coalition with the Liberal Party but failed and Edward Heath's government resigned. Labour came to power in March 1974, its leader Harold Wilson having accepted the Royal invitation to form a minority government. Wilson called a second election for October 1974, which gave Labour a wafer-thin majority of three MPs. The Labour Government implemented pay restraint to control global inflation, coupled with stagnation and unemployment at record post-war levels. Wilson resigned in 1976 in poorer health, on turning 60, and James Callaghan became Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister. By-elections and defections whittled away Labour's majority, which technically was non-existent by April 1976 in the House of Commons after a by-election defeat, the defection of two Labour MPs to form the Scottish Labour Party and the disappearance of backbencher John Stonehouse.〔(BBC Politics Summaries ) – Background to the Vote of No Confidence〕
In 1977 the Labour Government and the Liberal Party agreed the Lib-Lab pact by which the Liberals agreed to support the Government in return for pre-legislative consultation. The pact lasted for a year before lapsing in July 1978;〔 at which point the Liberal Party declared that they supported a general election as soon as possible and would therefore support any no confidence motions. Callaghan was widely expected to call an election in September 1978 but decided against this, hoping he would fare better in a year's time once the economy had improved. However the winter saw a prolonged period of industrial unrest known as the Winter of Discontent which severely reduced Labour's popularity.〔 The government survived a motion of no confidence in December 1978 by ten votes after negotiating the support of the Ulster Unionists (draft legislation was before the House to give Northern Ireland more Parliamentary seats; it cleared the House of Commons on 17 January 1979).
On 1 March 1979 a Referendum on the Scotland Act saw a majority vote for devolution, but a threshold imposed by anti-devolution MPs requiring 40% of the electorate to be in favour was not reached due to low turnout.〔 When the Government refused to implement the Act (per its special threshold legislative clause) the Scottish National Party 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, Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher put down an Opposition motion which took precedence. The debate was scheduled for Wednesday, 28 March 1979.〔
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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