List of prime ministers defeated by votes of no confidence

This is a list of Prime Ministers defeated by a parliamentary motion of no confidence.

Prime Ministers defeated by votes of no confidence

Australia

*Stanley Bruce (1929)
*James Scullin (1931)
*Arthur Fadden (1941)
*Malcolm Fraser (1975) [The vote of no confidence against Fraser was in unique circumstances. The Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, had dismissed Gough Whitlam and his Labor government after their failure to secure supply in the Senate in the constitutional crisis of 1975, despite a clear, stable Labor majority in the House of Representatives, and appointed Liberal leader Malcolm Fraser Prime Minister. Fraser then advised the dissolution of both houses and the calling of an early election. Between Fraser's advice and the formal dissolution of parliament, Whitlam responded by going to the House of Representatives and passing a motion of no confidence in Fraser, but by the time the motion was formally received by the Governor-General he had formally enacted the dissolution and so this gesture made no difference. At the ensuing elections Fraser and the Liberals won a landslide victory.]

Canada

*Arthur Meighen (1926)
*John George Diefenbaker (1963)
*Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1974) [Trudeau lost a motion of confidence when he failed to pass the 1974 budget. However, it was later revealed that this was done purposely by Prime Minister Trudeau in a successful attempt to win a majority government. This is the only time the tactic has been used in federal Canadian politics, but it established a precedent. Such a tactic is now called "engineering the defeat of one's own government", and the practice is widely frowned upon. ]
*Joe Clark (1979)
*Paul Martin (2005) [While Meighen, Diefenbaker and Trudeau were toppled by loss of supply, and Joe Clark was defeated by the passage of a subamendment to a budget bill that read "that this House has lost confidence in the government," only Paul Martin lost an actual motion of no confidence put forward by the opposition parties.]

Denmark

*Knud Kristensen (1947)

France

*Georges Pompidou (1962)

Germany

*Helmut Schmidt (1982)

India

*Vishwanath Pratap Singh (1990)
*H D Deve Gowda (1997)
*Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1999)

Israel

*Yitzhak Shamir (1990)

Italy

*Benito Mussolini (1943) [The Grand Council of Fascism passed a resolution asking the king to resume his full constitutional powers, which amounted to a vote of no confidence in Mussolini.]
*Amintore Fanfani (1954)
*Romano Prodi 1st (1998)
*Romano Prodi 2nd (2008)

Japan

*Katsura Taro (1913)
*Shigeru Yoshida 2nd (1948)
*Shigeru Yoshida 4th (1953)
*Masayoshi Ohira (1980)
*Kiichi Miyazawa (1993)

The Netherlands

* Joseph Maria Laurens Theo Cals (1966)
* Rudolphus Franciscus Marie Lubbers (1989)

New Zealand

*Thomas MacKenzie (1912)

Norway

*Christopher Hornsrud (1928)
*Einar Gerhardsen (1963)
*John Lyng (1963)

Papua New Guinea

*Michael Somare (1980)
*Paias Wingti (1988)

Solomon Islands

*Francis Billy Hilly (1994)
*Manasseh Sogavare (2007)

Tuvalu

*Bikenibeu Paeniu (1999)
*Faimalaga Luka (2001)
*Saufatu Sopoanga (2004)

Ukraine

*Viktor Yushchenko (2001)
*Viktor Yanukovych (2004)

United Kingdom

*Lord North (1782)—This is considered to be the first motion of no confidence in history
*John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1866)
*Benjamin Disraeli (1868)
*William Gladstone (1885)
*Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1886)
*William Gladstone (1886)
*Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1892)
*Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (1895)
*Stanley Baldwin (January 1924)
*Ramsay MacDonald (October 1924)
*James Callaghan (1979)

Vanuatu

*Serge Vohor (2004)

Other leaders defeated in no confidence votes

Presidents

Nauru

*Kinza Clodumar (1998)
*Bernard Dowiyogo (2001)
*Ludwig Scotty (2003, 2007)

Notes

ee also

* Motion of Confidence#Examples of defeats by Motions of Confidence
* Confidence and supply