The following article is a list of government defeats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom since 1945; that is, where the government whips have instructed their MPs to vote (or, in rare circumstances, abstain from voting) a certain way on a division of the House and have subsequently been defeated.
Jim Callaghan's government suffered 34 defeats in the House of Commons during its three years in office.
Callaghan's government was a minority one for virtually all of its existence, after the former cabinet minister John Stonehouse resigned from the Labour Party just two days after Callaghan became Prime Minister, leaving Labour one seat short of an overall majority in the House of Commons.
During her 11 years in office, Margaret Thatcher's government suffered four House of Commons defeats.
John Major's government suffered six defeats in the House of Commons during its seven-year tenure.
Furthermore, to prevent recorded defeats, May's government typically whipped to abstain on non-binding Opposition Day motions it did not envisage winning on division.
Boris Johnson's government from July 2019 until the general election in December was defeated on 12 divisions in the House of Commons.