page_title: List of votes of no confidence in British governments
section_title: Defeat of the Walpole ministry
hierarchical_section_title: List of votes of no confidence in British governments / Defeat of the Walpole ministry
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Robert Walpole&#32;(1676&#8211;1745)
context_page_description: This a list of votes of no confidence in British governments led by prime ministers of the former Kingdom of Great Britain and the current United Kingdom. The first such motion of no confidence to defeat a ministry was in 1742 against Sir Robert Walpole, a Whig who served from 1721 to 1742 and was the de facto first prime minister to hold office. Thereafter there have been 21 votes of confidence successfully motioned against British governments. The most recent was held against the Callaghan ministry in March 1979. Following the defeat, Prime Minister James Callaghan was forced to hold a general election by May; he was defeated by Margaret Thatcher of the Conservative Party.
  Before the vote in 1979, the most recent vote of no confidence in a British government was in 1924, the longest interval in British parliamentary history.
context_section_description: The 1742 vote of no confidence in the government of Sir Robert Walpole was the first time that a Prime Minister of Great Britain resigned after a vote of no confidence by the House of Commons. Walpole is regarded as the first British prime minister, although this was not an official title until the early twentieth century. He had been continually in office since April 1721 and relied for the continuance of his government on the confidence of the King as well as that of Parliament.
  As early as 1739, Walpole told the House of Commons that the ministry should be accountable to the Parliament. During the following years, the support for the government in the House of Commons decreased gradually. In January 1742, the government introduced in a petition against the return of two Members of Parliament for Chippenham in recently held by-elections. The petition was defeated in the House of Commons by a vote of 235 to 236 on 28 January.
  Walpole saw this defeat as the loss of Parliament's confidence in his ministry. As a result, he submitted his resignation as First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer on 11 February and was replaced by Lord Wilmington. Walpole had been created Earl of Orford by King George II on 6 February and left the House of Commons. However, the principle of Cabinet collective responsibility had not been established and the other members of the Walpole ministry remained in office.
caption: Robert Walpole
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