Employment Rights Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 48

What happened: The House of Commons voted on 15 September 2025 to disagree with Lords Amendment 48 to the Employment Rights Bill, effectively rejecting a modification that the House of Lords had made to the government's flagship employment legislation. The motion passed by 328 votes to 160, with the government securing a comfortable majority.

Why it matters: By overturning Lords Amendment 48, the Commons reasserted the government's original framework for employment rights in that particular provision. The Employment Rights Bill is a wide-ranging piece of legislation intended to strengthen protections for workers across the UK, and Lords amendments that alter its terms can significantly change how those protections operate in practice. Rejecting this amendment means the government's preferred approach to that element of the Bill will proceed, affecting employees and employers across the economy.

The politics: The vote divided almost entirely along government-versus-opposition lines. All 274 voting Labour MPs and 34 Labour and Co-operative MPs backed the government, joined by the Scottish National Party (7 votes), Plaid Cymru (3), the Greens (3), and most voting Independents (4). The Conservatives (83), Liberal Democrats (66), Reform UK (6), and the Democratic Unionist Party (2) all voted against. There were no notable cross-party rebellions on the government benches. The vote is part of a prolonged back-and-forth between the Commons and the Lords over the Employment Rights Bill, with related divisions in December 2025 showing a similar pattern of government majorities in the 300s overcoming Lords-backed opposition.