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

The House of Commons defeated amendment (l) to the King's Speech motion on 20 May 2026, by 408 votes to 78. The amendment was tabled by the Liberal Democrats and backed by the Scottish National Party, the Greens, Plaid Cymru, and a small number of independents. No Labour, Conservative, or Reform UK MPs voted in favour. The amendment concerned constitutional and parliamentary accountability. Defeats on King's Speech amendments do not change the law directly, but they signal the House's position on what the government's legislative programme should include or address. A successful amendment would have registered a formal parliamentary rebuke of the government's approach to the issues raised, in this case relating to democratic reform or scrutiny, and put political pressure on ministers to respond. By voting it down so heavily, the Commons rejected that signal. The Liberal Democrats led the charge, with 60 of their 72 MPs present voting aye. The SNP's 7 MPs and all 5 Green MPs also backed it, as did all 4 Plaid Cymru MPs. Labour and the Conservatives, between them accounting for almost all the noes, held firm on opposite sides of the chamber but united in the lobby against the amendment. Reform UK voted with the government. The vote sat alongside a series of other King's Speech amendments on the same day, including amendments (o) and (p), which were also defeated by similar margins of around 104 ayes to 316 or 317 noes, suggesting a consistent pattern of smaller parties pressing accountability arguments and the two larger parties resisting them.