Employment Rights Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 46

Parliament voted on 15 September 2025 to reject Lords Amendment 46 to the Employment Rights Bill, with the government winning the division by 314 votes to 178. The motion asked the Commons to disagree with a modification the House of Lords had made to the Bill, effectively restoring the government's original text on that provision. Labour and Labour-Co-operative MPs voted almost unanimously in favour, while Conservative, Liberal Democrat, SNP, Reform UK, Plaid Cymru, Green and DUP members voted against.

The vote matters because it advances the Employment Rights Bill closer to receiving Royal Assent in its government-preferred form. Lords Amendment 46 had altered a specific element of the employment rights framework the government is seeking to legislate, and by rejecting it the Commons reasserted its position on that provision. The Bill as a whole is intended to strengthen workers' protections, covering areas such as trade union rights, zero-hours contracts and unfair dismissal rules, and each contested amendment represents a concrete policy choice about the scope and detail of those protections.

The division followed strict party lines, with no Conservative, Liberal Democrat or other opposition MPs supporting the government, and only one Labour MP voting against. Three independents joined the government majority. This vote is part of a prolonged back-and-forth between the Commons and the Lords over the Bill, a process known as parliamentary ping-pong, with multiple related divisions recorded in December 2025 showing the two chambers continuing to trade amendments on employment law provisions.