"A working majority" means the number of seats a party has in a legislative body, which allows them to pass legislation and govern effectively. In the given context: * Labour Party won 411 seats: Out of the total number of seats in the legislative body (let's assume 650 seats in this example), Labour won 411. * Majority required: For a majority, a party needs more than half the total seats. In this case, more than 325 seats. * Working majority of 181: This means Labour has 181 seats more than the minimum required to have a majority. So, 411 seats (Labour) - 230 seats (half of 650) = 181 seats over the halfway mark, ensuring they can pass laws and govern without relying on support from other parties.

‘Majority’ is the difference between the largest group and the other groups. Labour-aligned parties had 411 and others had 239, for a majority of 172. ‘Working majority’ in this case is a UK-specific correction to this total taking into account the fact that there are non-voting members. Some of these are due to the particularities of how the UK parliament is organized and some because there are seats won by a party which abstains.

In the U.S., a working majority would be one large enough to allow the dominant party to pass legislation even if a few of their members defect. Defections here are more common than in the U.K.