1978 Scottish regional elections

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2 May 1978 (1978-05-02)

1980 →

Registered

3,737,145

Turnout

44.7

	First party	Second party

Leader	James Callaghan	Margaret Thatcher
Party	Labour	Conservative
Leader since	5 April 1976	11 February 1975
Seats won	176	136
Seat change	4	24
Popular vote	592,616	453,003
Percentage	39.6%	30.3%
Swing	1.1%	1.7%

	Third party	Fourth party

Leader	William Wolfe	David Steel
Party	SNP	Liberal
Leader since	1969	1976
Seats won	18	6
Seat change	-	5
Popular vote	313,062	34,284
Percentage	20.9%	2.3%
Swing	8.3%	2.8%

Colours denote the winning party with outright control

Regional elections were held in Scotland on Tuesday 2 May 1978, as part of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. They saw a resurgence of support for the Labour Party, retaining control of Strathclyde and Fife and winning Central and Lothian.

National results

Summary of the 1978 Scottish regional council election results
Parties		Votes	Votes %	Wards
	Labour	592,616	39.6	176
	Conservative	453,003	30.3	136
	SNP	313,062	20.9	18
	Liberal	34,284	2.3	6
	Communist	7,884	0.5	1
	SLP	6,629	0.4	0
	Independent Ratepayer	5,754	0.4	1
	Independent Labour	4,841	0.3	1
	Independent Nationalist	2,447	0.2	2
	Independent Liberal	1,291	0.1	0
	Workers Revolutionary	168	0.01	0
	Independent	73,449	4.9	89
Total		1,495,428	100.0	431

Results by council area

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Other		Details
Borders‡	0	9	1	1	11	1	Independent hold	Details
Central‡	18	6	6	0	2	2	Labour Gain	Details
Dumfries and Galloway‡	3	5	1	0	26	0	Independent hold	Details
Fife‡	24	14	1	0	2	1	Labour hold	Details
Grampian‡	13	33	2	2	3	0	Conservative Hold	Details
Highland‡	5	1	2	2	37	0	Independent Hold	Details
Lothian‡	26	18	3	1	1	0	Labour Gain	Details
Orkney‡	0	0	0	0	24		Independent Hold	Details
Shetland‡	3	0	0	0	22		Independent Hold	Details
Strathclyde‡	73	25	2	2	1	0	Labour Hold	Details
Tayside‡	15	25	0	0	6	0	Conservative Hold	Details
Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)‡	0	0	0	0	30	0	Independent Hold	Details

References

"Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
McConnell, Alan (2004), Scottish Local Government, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-2005-0
Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael (2013). Local Elections in Britain. Routledge. pp. Table 7.5.
Bochel, J. M.; Denver, D. T.; McHardy, B. J. Scottish Regional Election 1978: Results and Statistics. University of Dundee and University of Lancaster. pp. 59–63.
"The Glasgow Herald - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
"The Glasgow Herald - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.

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v t e (1977 ←) 1978 United Kingdom local elections (→ 1979)
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