Office buys loyalty

1.08% of whipped votes off the front bench, 0.08% on it. Votes since 2016.

0.08%

of votes Conservatives cast against their party while ministers

1.08%

when out of government

737,317

votes analysed, Commons and Lords, since 2016

Ministers are bound by collective responsibility: vote against the government and you are expected to resign. So the more interesting question is what the same people do before and after they hold office.

In office, rebellion all but disappears: Conservative ministers voted against their party on 0.08% of whipped votes, Labour ministers on 0.01%. Off the front bench the same people rebel far more, Conservatives 13.5 times as often. Former ministers in the Lords, who sit for life, fill much of the list below.

Rebellion rate in and out of office

% of votes cast against the majority of the member's own party

As a ministerNot a minister

Whipped votes since 2016; free votes are excluded because there is no party line. Labour's "not a minister" votes are mostly from 2016–24, when the party was in opposition and its frontbenchers were not ministers.

Show the data

Party	As minister %	Not minister %	Votes
Conservative	0.08	1.08	463250
Labour	0.01	0.49	256838
Liberal Democrat	0.0	0.62	17229

The most rebellious former ministers

Main-party members with at least 300 votes since 2016, whipped votes only