King's Speech Motion for an Address: amendment (o)

Parliament defeated a Conservative amendment to the King's Speech on 20 May 2026, with 317 MPs voting against and 104 voting in favour. The amendment, moved by shadow Home Secretary Sir James Cleverly, would have expressed regret that the King's Speech failed to commit to boosting defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030, lacked measures to deter illegal Channel crossings, omitted legally binding food security targets, ignored rural communities and farming, and did not adequately protect family finances or energy security. The vote matters because the King's Speech sets the legislative agenda for the parliamentary session, and amendments expressing "regret" are the opposition's main tool for forcing a formal division on the government's priorities. Defeating this amendment means the government's agenda on immigration, border security, crime and public order faces no immediate parliamentary check from the Conservative opposition. The amendment covered a wide range of policy areas, from asylum and Channel crossings to policing and domestic abuse, signalling that the Conservatives intend to use every available mechanism to challenge the new Labour government's legislative programme. The division followed strict party lines. All 272 Labour MPs and 34 Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted opposed the amendment, joined by all five Green MPs and the one SDLP member present. The 91 Conservatives who voted backed it, along with six Reform UK members, five Independents, one Restore Britain MP and one DUP member. No Conservative voted against, and no Labour or Labour Co-operative MP voted for it. The result is consistent with other King's Speech divisions on the same day, including amendment (p), which was also defeated 316 to 104, and amendment (l), which fell 408 to 78, suggesting the Conservatives tested multiple lines of attack and lost all of them by substantial margins.