Editing James Callaghan (section)

===Minority government===
Callaghan's time as prime minister was dominated by the troubles in running a government with a minority in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]]: Labour had won a narrow majority of three seats at the [[October 1974 United Kingdom general election|October 1974 election]], however by April 1976, their overall majority had disappeared, due to by-election losses and the defection of two MPs to the breakaway [[Scottish Labour Party (1976)|Scottish Labour Party]], which left Callaghan heading a [[minority government]], forced to do deals with smaller parties in order to govern. An arrangement negotiated in March 1977 with [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] leader [[David Steel]], known as the [[Lib–Lab pact#1977|Lib–Lab pact]], lasted until August the following year. Deals were then forged with various small parties including the [[Scottish National Party]] (SNP) and the Welsh nationalist [[Plaid Cymru]], prolonging the life of the government. The nationalist parties, in turn, demanded [[devolution]] to their respective constituent countries in return for their supporting the government. When referendums for Scottish and Welsh devolution were held in March 1979 the [[1979 Welsh devolution referendum|Welsh devolution referendum]] saw a large majority vote against, while the [[1979 Scottish devolution referendum|Scottish referendum]] returned a narrow majority in favour, but failed to reach the required threshold of 40% of the electorate in support. When the Labour government duly refused to push ahead with setting up the proposed Scottish Assembly, the SNP withdrew its support for the government: this finally brought the government down as the Conservatives triggered a [[1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry|vote of no confidence]] in Callaghan's government that was lost by a single vote on 28 March 1979, necessitating a [[1979 United Kingdom general election|general election]].<ref name="Thorpe70s">{{cite book |last1=Thorpe |first1=Andrew |title=A History of The British Labour Party |date=2001 |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=0-333-92908-X |pages=166–188}}</ref>