Employment Rights Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 61

Parliament voted on 15 September 2025 to reject Lords Amendment 61 to the Employment Rights Bill, with the government motion to disagree passing by 330 votes to 161. The vote restores the government's original provisions in place of the changes the House of Lords had introduced to the legislation. The result means the Bill continues on the government's preferred terms for this particular clause, though the Lords retain the ability to respond in what is known as parliamentary ping-pong, the back-and-forth process between the two chambers when they disagree.

The practical effect of overriding Lords Amendment 61 is to maintain the government's approach to the relevant workers' rights provisions without the modifications the Lords sought to introduce. The Employment Rights Bill is a substantial piece of legislation aimed at strengthening protections for workers across Great Britain, and each amendment that passes or fails shapes the final statutory framework that employers and employees will operate under. Depending on which specific protections Amendment 61 addressed, the outcome affects how rights are defined, enforced, or qualified in the workplace going forward.

The vote divided almost entirely along government versus opposition lines. Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs provided 308 of the 330 Aye votes, joined by the Scottish National Party with 8, Plaid Cymru with 3, the Greens with 2, and several independents. All 84 Conservative MPs who voted went into the No lobby, alongside all 66 Liberal Democrats, all 6 Reform UK members who voted, and 2 Democratic Unionists. There were no Labour rebels. This vote forms part of a prolonged legislative passage, with related divisions on the same Bill occurring in December 2025, suggesting an extended period of disagreement between the Commons and the Lords over the Bill's final shape.