What Is Confidence and Supply? How Support Deals Keep Governments Going

Confidence and supply is an arrangement in which a party, or a group of independent members, agrees to keep a minority government in office without joining it. The supporting side promises to vote with the government on motions of confidence and on the budget, and is free to vote as it likes on everything else.

It sits between a full coalition and a minority government that wins every vote from scratch. It is common in parliaments that follow the Westminster model, especially after an election produces a hung parliament.

What "confidence" and "supply" mean

Confidence

In a parliamentary system a government stays in office only while it keeps the confidence of the elected chamber. That confidence is tested by votes on motions of confidence or no confidence. A government that loses such a vote is expected either to make way for an alternative or to face an election. A promise of support on confidence votes therefore protects the government from being brought down.

Supply

"Supply" refers to the state budget: the money the government needs and the votes that allow it to raise and spend it. A government that cannot get its budget through cannot pay for public services, so a promise of support on supply keeps the state funded.

Together, those two promises are the minimum a government needs to survive. Everything else, from a single bill to an amendment, is negotiated vote by vote.

How it differs from a coalition

	Coalition	Confidence and supply
Ministers from the smaller party	Yes	No
Bound by collective responsibility	Yes, for its ministers	No
Votes it promises to support	Normally the whole programme	Confidence motions and the budget, plus anything else agreed
What the smaller party usually gets	Government posts and policy	Policy or funding commitments

The UK Cabinet Manual lists a "formal inter-party agreement" as one of three broad kinds of government that can follow an election with no overall majority, alongside a single-party minority government and a formal coalition. Its example is the Liberal–Labour pact of 1977 to 1978, under which the Liberals supported the Labour government in return for limited policy concessions.

The UK example: Conservatives and the DUP, 2017

At the general election of 8 June 2017 the Conservatives won 317 of the 650 seats, short of the 326 needed for a majority. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from Northern Ireland won 10. The two parties opened talks on 9 June, and the agreement was signed on 26 June 2017 by the two parties' chief whips.

What the DUP agreed to support

For the length of the parliament, the DUP agreed to back the government in the House of Commons on:

• all motions of confidence;
• the Queen's Speech;
• the Budget;
• finance, money and appropriation bills;
• legislation on leaving the European Union;
• legislation on national security.

Other business was to be agreed case by case, with a coordination committee of the two parties overseeing how the deal worked.

What the government agreed

• An extra £1 billion for Northern Ireland, aimed at health, infrastructure and education. The government said the money was not subject to the Barnett formula, so it did not bring matching increases for Scotland or Wales.
• The Conservatives dropped proposals in their 2017 manifesto to change pensions and the winter fuel allowance.
• Both sides restated commitments to the Union, to the Good Friday Agreement and to the NATO target of 2% for defence spending.

The deal gave the government a working majority of 13. It also showed the limits of the model. In September 2017 the DUP voted with the opposition on non-binding motions on tuition fees and NHS pay, and in 2019 it voted against the government's Brexit withdrawal agreement, which fell outside what it had promised. The arrangement lasted until the 2019 general election.

Examples from other parliaments

New Zealand

New Zealand has used confidence and supply often. In 2005 Labour formed a coalition with the Progressive Party and relied on confidence and supply from New Zealand First and United Future. In 2008 National formed a minority government with confidence and supply from ACT, United Future and the Māori Party, and renewed similar agreements after the 2011 and 2014 elections. In 2017 Labour governed in coalition with New Zealand First, with confidence and supply from the Greens.

Canada

A few months into the 44th Parliament, in 2022, the New Democratic Party agreed to support the Liberal minority government on confidence motions and budget votes, in an agreement meant to run until 2025. In return the Liberals committed to advance NDP priorities on dental care, prescription drugs and childcare. The NDP ended the agreement early, on 4 September 2024. In British Columbia, the provincial Greens supported an NDP government on confidence and supply from 2017 until an early election in 2020.

Australia

After the 2010 federal election produced a hung parliament, Labor governed as a minority with the backing of three independents and one Green MP.

Strengths and weaknesses

Supporters of confidence and supply say that:

• it gives a government enough stability to function without forcing parties with different programmes into one cabinet;
• the smaller party keeps its independence and can still criticise the government;
• it can be put together faster than a full coalition.

Critics say that:

• the smaller party gains influence, sometimes in the form of money for one area, without taking responsibility for the government's record;
• the government still has to win every other vote, which can make passing laws slow and uncertain;
• the deal can fray when an issue falls outside its terms.