Confidence and supply

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In parliamentary democracies based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply is an arrangement under which a minority government (one which does not control a majority in the legislature) receives the support of one or more parties or independent MPs on confidence votes and the state budget ("supply"). On issues other than those outlined in the confidence and supply agreement, non-government partners to the agreement are not bound to support the government on any given piece of legislation.^[1][2]

A coalition government is a more formal arrangement than a confidence-and-supply agreement, in that members from junior parties (i.e., parties other than the largest) gain positions in the cabinet and ministerial roles, and are generally expected to hold the government whip on passing legislation.

In most parliamentary democracies, members of a parliament can propose a motion of confidence^[3] or of no confidence in the government or executive. The results of such motions show how much support the government currently has in parliament. Should a motion of confidence fail, or a motion of no confidence pass, the government will usually either resign and allow other politicians to form a new government, or call an election.

Most parliamentary democracies require an annual state budget, an appropriation bill, also called supply bill, or occasional financial measures to be passed by parliament in order for a government to pay its way and enact its policies. The failure of a supply bill is in effect the same as the failure of a confidence motion. In early modern England, the withholding of funds was one of Parliament's few ways of controlling the monarch.

Country	Head of government	Governing parties	Confidence partners	Seats
				Government		Support	Total
Croatia	Andrej Plenković	HDZ – SDSS	HSLS – HNS-LD – HDS – Ind.	67	44.4%	10	76/151	50.3%
Denmark	Mette Frederiksen	A – V – M	B – JF – S – Ind.	86	48%	4	90/179	50.3%
Pakistan	Shehbaz Sharif	PMLN	PPP	108	32.1%	68	176/336	52.3%
Poland	Donald Tusk	KO – PL2050 KP - NL	Independent[a]	239	51.95%	9	248/460	53.91%
Spain	Pedro Sánchez	PSOE – Sumar	ERC – Junts – EH Bildu – EAJ/PNV – BNG – CCa	152	43.4%	27	179/350	51.1%
Sweden	Ulf Kristersson	M – KD – L	SD	103	29.5%	73	176/349	50.4%
Turkey	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan	AKP	MHP – HÜDA PAR – DSP	263	43.8%	55	318/600	53.0%
Sub-national
Asturias	Adrián Barbón	FSA-PSOE	IU/IX – IAS	19	42.2%	4	23/45	51.1%
Azores	José Manuel Bolieiro	PPD/PSD – CDS-PP - PPM	Chega – IL	26	45.6%	3	29/57	50.9%
Balearic Islands	Marga Prohens	PP	Vox	25	42.3%	9	34/59	57.6%
Murcia	Fernando López Miras	PP	Vox	21	46.6%	9	30/45	66.6%
Navarre	María Chivite	PSN – GBai – Podemos	I-E	21	42.0%	9	30/50	60.0%
New South Wales	Chris Minns	Labor	Ind. (AG, GP, & JM)	45	48.3%	3	48/93	51.6%
Tasmania	Jeremy Rockliff	Liberal	JLN – Ind. (DO & KJ)	14	40.0%	5	19/35	54.2%
Thuringia	Bodo Ramelow	LINKE – SPD – Grüne	CDU	42	46.7%	21	63/90	70.0%
Yukon	Ranj Pillai	Liberal	NDP	8	42.1%	3	11/19	57.9%

The Australian Labor Party Gillard government formed a minority government in the hung parliament elected at the 2010 federal election resulting from a confidence-and-supply agreement with three independent MPs and one Green MP.^[4]

Following the

In November 2008, the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party (NDP) reached an agreement to form a minority coalition government, with the Bloc Québécois having signed a confidence agreement to support the proposed coalition. However, the proposed coalition and confidence agreement fell apart in January 2009, as a result of an ensuing parliamentary dispute.^[5][6]

In 2022, a few months into the 44th Canadian Parliament, the NDP agreed to a confidence-and-supply agreement with the governing Liberal Party, to continue the Liberal minority government. The deal was intended to keep the minority Liberal government in power until 2025, with the NDP agreeing to support the government on confidence motions and budget votes. In exchange, the Liberal government pledged to advance work on key NDP policy priorities on dental care, pharmaceutical drugs, and affordable childcare.^[7] NDP leader Jagmeet Singh announced the early termination of the agreement on 4 September 2024.^[8]

After the

On 2 November 2018 (less than two months after the 2018 New Brunswick general election) the legislative assembly voted 25-23 for a motion, introduced by the Progressive Conservatives, to amend the throne speech to declare no confidence in the government. Subsequently, Premier Brian Gallant indicated his intention to resign the premiership and recommend to the lieutenant governor that PC leader Blaine Higgs be given the mandate to form a minority government: "I will go see the lieutenant-governor at her earliest convenience to inform her that I will be resigning as premier, and I will humbly suggest to her honour to allow the leader of the Conservative Party to attempt to form a government and attempt to gain the confidence of the house". People's Alliance leader Kris Austin said he would work with the new government "in the areas we agree on," and reiterated his promise to support the Progressive Conservatives on confidence votes for a period of 18 months. Green Party leader David Coon said he would start working with the Tories in an attempt to ensure his party's issues were on the government's agenda.^[12]

Twenty-two days after the

After the 2021 territorial election resulted in the Yukon Liberal Party and the Yukon Party winning the same number of seats, the third place Yukon New Democratic Party agreed to provide confidence and supply to a Liberal minority government.^[15]

Third Front national governments were formed in 1989 and 1996 with outside support of one of the two major parties, BJP or Congress.

The CPI-M gave outside support to the Congress Party from 2004 to 2008, but later withdrew support after the India–United States Civil Nuclear Agreement.

After the

In Japan, the equivalent of a confidence and supply arrangement is called "extra-cabinet cooperation" (閣外協力, kakugai kyōryoku). The latest such agreement was made after the 1996 House of Representatives election between the Second Hashimoto Cabinet, an LDP single-party government somewhat short of majorities in both houses, and two parties which had formed the governing coalition with the LDP until the election: the JSP and Shintō Sakigake (NPH/NPS/Sakigake). By 1997, the LDP had gained a House of Representatives majority of its own through accessions (see New Frontier Party) and was hoping to regain full parliamentary control in the 1998 House of Councillors election. Instead, the cooperation agreement was ultimately terminated while the government lost seats in the 1998 election, leaving clear control to the opposition, a so-called "Twisted Diet". The Hashimoto Cabinet resigned to give way for a new cabinet led by prime minister Keizō Ōbuchi which entered formal negotiations with other parties to form a coalition government by January 1999 (First Reshuffled Obuchi Cabinet).

There is another implicit form of cooperation where (usually very small) parties which are not part of the cabinet join one of the ruling parties in joint parliamentary groups in one or both houses of the National Diet and vote with the government. A recent example were the joint LDP groups with the Party for Japanese Kokoro and New Party Daichi during the 2nd Reshuffled Third Abe Cabinet.

A confidence and supply agreement was signed on 13 September 2021 between

In the aftermath of the 2017 general election which left Theresa May's Conservative Party without a majority, a confidence-and-supply agreement was agreed with the Democratic Unionist Party.^[26]

Confidence and supply deals are more frequent in the devolved legislatures of Scotland and Wales due to the use of