The Callaghan government fell on 28 March 1979 because it lost a motion of no confidence by one single vote (310-311), as a result of which the Prime Minister quite correctly advised HMQ to dissolve Parliament. That was a 0.16% margin of votes cast.
Had the same number of MPs (621) voted in the 2016 EU Referendum and the split been 48%/52% the government would have lost (or won) by a margin of 25 votes. Many issues have been determined by smaller margins in the House of Commons - here are a few just since the last General Election*:
Date | Time | Subject | Turnout | Majority | Margin % |
20 Oct 2015 | 18:52 | Opposition Day — Tax Credits | 616 | 22 | 3.57% |
26 Oct 2015 | 21:13 | Finance Bill — New Clause 7 — VAT on Sanitary Protection Products | 596 | 18 | 3.02% |
19 Jan 2016 | 16:16 | Education (Student Support) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 — Prayer to Annul — Replacing Student Grants with Larger Loans for Students from England | 599 | 11 | 1.84% |
19 Jan 2016 | 16:16 | Opposition Day — Student Maintenance Grants | 602 | 14 | 2.33% |
25 Apr 2016 | 21:26 | Immigration Bill — Unaccompanied Refugee Children: Relocation and Support | 572 | 18 | 3.15% |
28 Jun 2016 | 14:30 | Finance Bill — Schedule 19 — Multinational Enterprises — Publication of Country by Country Tax Strategy | 571 | 22 | 3.85% |
"My policy is to hold a renegotiation and then a referendum. That is what we promised in the manifesto and then to abide by what the British public say." PM David Cameron, 19 January 2016. "This is a decision that lasts for life. We make this decision and it is probably going to be the only time in our generation when we make this decision" - PM David Cameron, 23 Feb 2016.
It is time for "those who know better" to decide whether they believe in democracy at all.
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* Data from http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/divisions.php - clearly there is a date error around 19 Jan 2016 but the general point stands.
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* Data from http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/divisions.php - clearly there is a date error around 19 Jan 2016 but the general point stands.
1 comment:
It's over, it's done, now get TF on with it, May.
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