1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry

This article is part of a series about James Callaghan
Labour Party MP for Cardiff South East Wilson's Cabinet Decimalisation Race Relations Act 1968 1975 EEC Referendum Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1976 leadership election Cabinet Lib–Lab pact Winter of Discontent 1979 Scottish devolution referendum 1979 Welsh devolution referendum Vote of no confidence 1979 budget 1979 general election
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A vote of no confidence in the British Labour government, 1974–1979, 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 UK 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]