Two things are generally required for a Westminster-system government to have mandate to govern: supply and confidence. Supply relates to the access to money,

Two things are generally required for a Westminster-system government to have mandate to govern: supply and confidence. Supply relates to the access to money, specifically through approval of the government budget. If a government has supply, it has an agreement with enough members of the house that it will retain approval to spend money on its policies. If a government loses supply, it loses the support of the house to spend any state money. Similarly, confidence relates to support that the government represents the will of the people. Just as with supply, a government must secure a vote from enough members that they will support the government’s actions (they have confidence in the government). When they talk about a “vote of no confidence” it specifically means voting to remove support of the government in this way. Further info can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_and_supply https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_and_supply