1973 United Kingdom local elections


The first elections to the new local authorities established by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales and the new Northern Ireland district councils created by the Local Government Act 1972 took place in 1973. Elections to the existing Greater London Council also took place.

England and Wales

The elections took place on three dates:
Elections took place for all the seats on the councils. In the case of the new councils, they became shadow authorities, taking over from the existing local authorities on 1 April 1974. The elections for the new councils had been brought forward from an originally planned date in November 1973, to allow the councils more time to act as shadow authorities - the final dates were set in May 1972.

The April elections

The elections held on 12 April saw a very impressive performance by the Labour Party, which regained control of the Greater London Council and took control of all six of the new metropolitan county councils. In the rest of England, they won seven county councils, including two of the new "estuary" counties: Cleveland and Humberside. The party also won Gwent and the three Glamorgan county councils in Wales.
The poor Conservative vote in London and the metropolitan counties was somewhat compensated by winning thirteen of the non-metropolitan counties. Failure to gain Essex or Hertfordshire were disappointments to the party, but taking control of Gloucestershire was a success. The party also failed to gain its only realistic Welsh prospect, South Glamorgan.
There were no great successes for the Liberal party, which found itself in third place in all the metropolitan counties. They did however gain representation on the GLC for the first time, winning two seats at Sutton and Cheam and Richmond upon Thames. This followed the previous year's by-election success in winning the Sutton and Cheam parliamentary seat from the Conservatives.
Independents won two English counties outright: Cornwall and the Isle of Wight. They also formed the largest grouping on a number of other councils, and entered agreements with the Conservatives in the running of some of these. In Wales, Independents controlled three mainly rural counties.

The May elections

The results of the elections in May saw an improvement in the performance by the Conservatives since the county council elections, and a slight fall back in the Labour vote. The Liberals had a notable success, becoming the largest group on Liverpool council.
The Conservatives took control of five metropolitan districts, gaining seats in areas where they had been beaten in the elections to the county councils. They also gained one Welsh district, Monmouth.
The Labour party declared it was pleased with the results, especially as opinion polls had shown them losing support. They took control of most of the metropolitan districts, making a clean sweep of councils in Tyne and Wear and South Yorkshire and important councils such as Birmingham, Coventry and Manchester. Labour also took control of most districts in South Wales including Cardiff. The party's organiser for Wales also pointed to the fact that official Labour candidates won rural seats in north and west Wales for the first time.
Apart from forming a minority administration in Liverpool, the Liberals were able to hold the balance of power at Leeds, Stockport and Wirral. They were however disappointed with their performance at Calderdale which was won by Labour.

The June elections

In the June elections for 296 non-metropolitan districts, Labour won control of 71, the Conservatives 59, the Liberals 1, Democratic Labour 1, and Independents 67. 97 councils were under no overall control: in many of these councils Conservative and Independent groups formed an administration.
The Labour party won 4,327 seats, the Conservatives 4,286, Independents 3,534, and the Liberals 919; with the remaining 449 seats going to various other groupings.
It was a good result for the Liberal party who took control of Eastbourne and became the largest group on Adur, Newbury, Pendle and Waverley councils. The other two main parties also had notable successes: Labour considered control of Cambridge, Dacorum, Ipswich and Oxford to be good results; while the Conservatives celebrated taking Gloucester, Great Yarmouth, Lewes and Warrington councils.
The break-away Democratic Labour Association won twenty of the thirty seats on Lincoln district council. The group were supporters of Dick Taverne, member of parliament for Lincoln who had been expelled from the Labour Party. Taverne had earlier in the year resigned his seat to force a by-election in protest against his expulsion, which he won against the official Labour candidate.

The Results

Metropolitan county councils

Non-metropolitan county councils

Welsh county councils

Greater London Council

ConservativeLabourLiberalIndependentOtherControlDetails
3258200LabourDetails

Metropolitan Districts

A minority Liberal administration was formed

Welsh Districts

Non-metropolitan Districts

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
V
W
Y

Future elections

The next county council elections took place in 1977.
Future elections to Metropolitan District councils were to be by thirds, with the one third of seats being elected in 1975.
The next election of non-metropolitan district councils and Welsh district councils was to in 1976.

Northern Ireland

Local government in Northern Ireland was reorganised in 1973 by the Local Government Act 1971 and the Local Government Act 1972. The county councils, county borough and municipal borough corporations and urban and rural district councils were replaced by twenty-six Local Government districts. Elections took place for all the seats on the district councils on 30 May.
DistrictOfficial
Unionist		Democratic
Unionist		Vanguard
Unionist		Loyalist
Coalition		Independent
Unionist		SDLPRepublican
Clubs		Nationalist
and Unity
Parties		AllianceNorthern Ireland
Labour Party		OthersControl
Antrim8110110020Independent 2NOC
Ards11001100021Independent 1Official Unionist
Armagh10200141010Independent 1NOC
Ballymena9510000010Independent 2
Non-Party 3		NOC
Ballymoney4102200001Independent 1
Non-Party 5		NOC
Banbridge8000310000Independent 3NOC
Belfast25210272082Unionist Loyalist 2NOC
Carrickfergus5000000010Unionist Loyalist 5

Loyalist 1

Non-Party 1		NOC
Castlereagh8001200050Unionist Loyalist 2
Independent 1		NOC
Coleraine12000210030Independent 1
Non-party 1		Official Unionist
Cookstown7001131000Independent 1
Non-Party 1		NOC
Craigavon7323320040Independent 1NOC
Down8010080020Independent 1NOC
Dungannon11000050Unity 2
Republican 2		000Official Unionist
Fermanagh5000340Unity 400Independent 1
Unionist Unity 2
Non-Party 1		NOC
Larne1008000030Independent 2
Non-Party 1		Loyalist
Limavady0000040020United Unionists 8
Independent 1		United Unionists
Lisburn144100100300Official Unionist
Londonderry000United Loyalists 90101Nationalist 3000NOC
Magherafelt401United Loyalist 1061000Independent 1NOC
Moyle4000120000Independent 5
Non-Party 4		NOC
Newry and Mourne30000132000Non-Party 6
Independent 2		NOC
Newtownabbey9300Unionist 3
United Loyalist 1
Loyalist 1		000310NOC
North Down900Loyalist 30007000NOC
Omagh6000Unionist Unity 240Nationalist 1
Official Republican 1		003 Non-Party CommunityNOC
Strabane600Unionist Coalition 1040000Independent 2NOC

Scotland

Local elections were also held in Scotland in 1973. At the time of the election, Scotland was the only part of the UK in which local government had yet to be reformed, with the Local Government Act 1973 only receiving Royal Assent in October 1973. The election saw Labour maintaining their control of Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Dundee, although failing to make gains in Edinburgh.