List of prime ministers defeated by votes of no confidence

This is a list of prime ministers defeated by either a parliamentary motion of no confidence or by the similar process of loss of supply.

Prime ministers defeated by votes of no confidence

Australia

Only one Australian prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, has ever been defeated in the House of Representatives by an explicit motion of no confidence.^[1]^[2] In addition, six prime ministers were unable to enact important policy and therefore resigned, two prime ministers were unable to obtain supply from the House of Representatives, one prime minister was unable to obtain supply in the Senate and was dismissed by the Governor General, one prime minister never had the confidence of the House of Representatives, lost a motion of no confidence and refused to resign.^[3]

These prime ministers were able to gain supply from the House of Representatives, but were unable to pass important policy-related legislation:

Chris Watson (1904, Conciliation and Arbitration Bill)
George Reid (1905, amendment on the address-in-reply)
Alfred Deakin (1908, motion to change the time of the next meeting of parliament)
Andrew Fisher (1909, a motion to adjourn debate)
Stanley Bruce (1929, major bill defeated)
James Scullin (1931, a motion to adjourn debate)

These prime ministers could not gain supply from the House of Representatives or an opposition amendment to a supply bill was passed:

Alfred Deakin (1904, could pass no legislation)
Arthur Fadden (1941, budget was amended down by £A1)
Malcolm Fraser (1975, could pass no legislation and lost a no confidence motion by the House of Representatives which also called on the Governor-General to recommission a government under Gough Whitlam as prime minister)^[4]

Gough Whitlam could not gain supply from the Senate which was controlled by the conservative Coalition. It thus precipitated the 1975 constitutional crisis and Whitlam was dismissed.

Following Whitlam's dismissal, Malcolm Fraser was appointed prime minister. He never had the confidence of the House of Representatives, and he lost a motion of no confidence by 10 votes in the House of Representatives two hours after the dismissal of Whitlam. However, the Governor-General refused to see the Speaker of the House of Representatives who was to convey this motion of no confidence to him, or to acknowledge the motion of no confidence of the House of Representatives which had also called on the Governor-General to recommission the government led by Gough Whitlam.^[4] One hour later the Governor-General dissolved parliament with Fraser still in office.^[2]

Austria

Sebastian Kurz (2019)

Barbados

Lloyd Erskine Sandiford (1994) ^[5]

British Virgin Islands

Andrew Fahie (2022) (Premier) ^[6]

Bulgaria

Philip Dimitrov (1992) – lost a vote of confidence
Kiril Petkov (2022)

Canada

William Lyon Mackenzie King (1925) – lost a budget vote

Arthur Meighen (1926) – lost a vote of confidence on appointing temporary ministers
John Diefenbaker (1963) – loss of confidence supply as a result of cabinet revolt
Pierre Trudeau (1974) – loss of confidence supply^[a]
Joe Clark (1979) – lost a budget vote
Paul Martin (2005) – opposition triggered motion^[b]
Stephen Harper (2011) – motion of no confidence that held the government in contempt of Parliament. Though the motion passed, Harper won a majority the following election.^[b]^[7]

Cook Islands

Terepai Maoate (2002)

Croatia

Tihomir Orešković (2016) – lost a vote of no confidence triggered by ruling party after he called for his vice-PM (ruling party president)'s resignation due to conflict of interest

Czech Republic

Denmark

Knud Kristensen (1947)

Estonia

Mart Laar 1st (1994) (after breaching a contract with Russia by selling stock Russian rubles to secessionist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria)
Taavi Rõivas (2016) (after not leaving office when having lost parliamentary majority by coalition members leaving)

Finland

V. J. Sukselainen (1957)
Rainer von Fieandt (1958)

France

Georges Pompidou (1962) – stayed on, National Assembly dissolved
Michel Barnier (2024)

Germany

Wilhelm Cuno (1923)
Gustav Stresemann (1923) – lost a vote of confidence
Hans Luther (1926)
Wilhelm Marx (1926)
Franz von Papen (1932)
Helmut Schmidt (1982)
Helmut Kohl (1982) – lost a vote of confidence (orchestrated by the majority with the aim of triggering an early federal election)
Gerhard Schröder (2005) – lost a vote of confidence (orchestrated by the majority with the aim of triggering an early federal election)
Olaf Scholz (2024) – lost a vote of confidence (orchestrated by the majority with the aim of triggering an early federal election)

Haiti

Jacques-Édouard Alexis (2008)
Michèle Pierre-Louis (2009)

India

Nepal

Netherlands

Hendrikus Colijn (1939)
Jo Cals (1966)

New Zealand

Thomas MacKenzie (1912)

Niger

Hama Amadou (2007)

Northern Cyprus

İrsen Küçük (2013)

Norway

Christopher Hornsrud (1928)
Einar Gerhardsen (1963)
John Lyng (1963)
Kåre Willoch (1986) – lost a "cabinet question"
Jan Peder Syse (1990)
Kjell Magne Bondevik (2000) – lost a "cabinet question"

Pakistan

Imran Khan (2022)

Papua New Guinea

Michael Somare (1980)
Paias Wingti (1988)
Sam Abal (2011)

Peru

Fernando Zavala (2017)

Poland

Jan Olszewski (1992)
Hanna Suchocka (1993)
Waldemar Pawlak (1995) – (orchestrated by the majority with the aim of changing the prime minister without consent of the President Lech Walesa)
Marek Belka (2004) – lost a vote of confidence
Mateusz Morawiecki (2023) – lost a vote of confidence two weeks after being sworn in by President Andrzej Duda despite protests from the opposition

Portugal

António Maria da Silva (1923)
José Domingues dos Santos (1925)
Mário Soares (1978, 1985)
Francisco Pinto Balsemão (1983)
Aníbal Cavaco Silva (1987)
Passos Coelho (Parliament rejected government programme) (2015)
Luís Montenegro (2025) – lost a vote of confidence

Romania

Samoa

Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa (2025, loss of supply)

Slovakia

Slovenia

Lojze Peterle (1992)
Janez Drnovšek (2000)
Borut Pahor (2011)
Janez Janša (2013)

Solomon Islands

Manasseh Sogavare (2007, 2017)

Somalia

Spain

Mariano Rajoy (2018)

Sri Lanka

Mahinda Rajapaksa (2018)

Sweden

Thailand

Seni Pramoj (1975)

Turkey

Kıbrıslı Mehmed Kâmil Pasha (1909)
Sadi Irmak (1974)
Bülent Ecevit (1977)
Tansu Çiller (1995)
Mesut Yılmaz (1996)

Tuvalu

Ukraine

Valeriy Pustovoitenko (1999) – lost a vote of confidence
Viktor Yushchenko (2001)
Viktor Yanukovych (2004)
Yulia Tymoshenko (2010)

United Kingdom

Lord North (1782)^[d]
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1866)
Benjamin Disraeli (1868)
William Ewart Gladstone (1885)
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1886)
William Ewart 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

Western Sahara

Mahfoud Ali Beiba (1999)

Yugoslavia

Radoje Kontić (1998)

Other leaders defeated in no confidence votes

Presidents

These countries are generally parliamentary systems in which the president is elected by the parliament but is also head of state.

France

Adolphe Thiers (1873)

French Polynesia

Gaston Flosse (2005, 2008)
Oscar Temaru (2006, 2009)
Gaston Tong Sang (2007, 2011)

Guyana

David A. Granger (2018)

Kiribati

Teburoro Tito (2003)

Marshall Islands

Litokwa Tomeing (2009)

Nauru

Lagumot Harris (1996)
Bernard Dowiyogo (1996, 2001)
Kinza Clodumar (1998)
Ludwig Scotty (2003, 2007)
René Harris (2004)
Freddie Pitcher (2011)
Russ Kun (2023)

References

^ House of Representatives Practice (7th edition) Chapter 9 Motions, 'Prime Ministers and Other Ministers' p. 325
^ ^a ^b "The motion that might have saved the Whitlam government". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
^ Jenny Hocking The Dismissal Dossier: Everything You Were Never Meant to Know about November 1975 – the Palace Connection Melbourne University Press 2017 pp 83–84
^ ^a ^b House of Representatives Hansard 11 November 1975 p. 2930-1
^ "20 years later . . ". www.nationnews.com. 2014-06-08. Retrieved 2022-04-10.
^ "British Virgin Islands passes vote of no-confidence against Premier Andrew Fahie". Reuters. 2022-05-05. Retrieved 2022-05-08.
^ "Election looms as government falls". CBC News. 25 March 2011. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
^ Dwyer, Ryle (2012-12-28). "Gubu politics disturbed a 'dull' year". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
^ Clarity, James F. (1992-11-06). "Leader Defeated, Irish Government Collapses". New York Times. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
^ "Pala Vlada Crne Gore". balkans.aljazeera.net (in Bosnian). 4 February 2022. Retrieved 2022-02-04.

Notes

^ 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 it is widely frowned upon
^ ^a ^b 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," Martin and Harper lost an actual motion of no confidence put forward by the opposition parties.
^ The Grand Council of Fascism passed a resolution (the Ordine del Giorno Grandi) asking the king to resume his full constitutional powers, which amounted to a vote of no confidence in Mussolini.
^ This is considered to be the first motion of no confidence in history.