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1980 United Kingdom local elections

← 1979 1 May 1980 1981 →
All 36 metropolitan boroughs, 103 out of 296 English districts and all 53 Scottish districts
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Margaret Thatcher James Callaghan David Steel Party Conservative Labour Liberal Leader since 11 February 1975 5 April 1976 7 July 1976 Percentage 40% 42% 13% Swing 601 Councillors 19,238 8,011 1,149 Councillors +/- 484 601 90

Local elections were held in the United Kingdom in 1980. These were the first annual local elections for the new Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Though the Conservatives in government lost seats, the projected share of the vote was close: Labour Party 42%, Conservative Party 40%, Liberal Party 13%. Labour were still being led by the former prime minister James Callaghan, who resigned later in the year to be succeeded by Michael Foot.

Labour gained 601 seats, bringing their number of councillors to 8,011. The Conservatives lost 484 seats, leaving them with 11,738 councillors. The Liberal Party gained 90 seats and finished with 1,149 councillors.

Changes in control of councils were as follows:

• Labour gain from no overall control: Amber Valley, Birmingham, Kirklees, Leeds, Peterborough, Rochdale, Walsall, Wolverhampton
• Labour gain from Conservative: Bolton, Bradford, Hyndburn, Oldham, Oxford, Preston, Tamworth, Worcester
• Conservative lose to no overall control: Calderdale, Daventry, Dudley, Great Yarmouth, Hastings, Rushmoor, Shrewsbury and Atcham, Weymouth and Portland
• Liberal gain from Conservative: Adur
• Independent gain from no overall control: Mole Valley

Summary of results

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (September 2015)

England

Metropolitan boroughs

Whole council

In 17 metropolitan boroughs the whole council was up for election.

In 17 boroughs there were new ward boundaries, following electoral boundary reviews by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England.

‡ New ward boundaries

Third of council

19 metropolitan borough councils had one third of their seats up for election.

District councils

In 103 districts one third of the council was up for election.

A further 59 councils had passed a resolution under section 7 (4) (b) of the Local Government Act 1972, requesting a system of elections by thirds. They could do so because they had had their new ward boundaries introduced at the 1979 elections.

‡ New ward boundaries

Scotland

District councils

References

Notes

1. Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael. Local Elections Handbook 1980. The Elections Centre. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
2. "Council compositions". The Elections Centre. Retrieved 3 May 2016.

Sources

• Local elections 2006. House of Commons Library Research Paper 06/26.
• Vote 1999 BBC News
• Vote 2000 BBC News

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European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019
Referendums	1975 2011 2016
See also Elections in England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Great Britain

v t e (1979 ←) 1980 United Kingdom local elections (→ 1982)
Metropolitan boroughs	Barnsley Birmingham Bradford Bolton Bury Calderdale Coventry Doncaster Dudley Gateshead Kirklees Knowsley Leeds Liverpool Manchester Newcastle North Tyneside Oldham Rochdale Rotherham Salford Sandwell Sefton Sheffield Solihull South Tyneside St Helens Stockport Sunderland Tameside Trafford Wakefield Walsall Wigan Wirral Wolverhampton
District councils (England)	Adur Amber Valley Barrow-in-Furness Basildon Basingstoke and Deane Bassetlaw Bath Blackburn Brentwood Broadland Broxbourne Burnley Cambridge Cannock Chase Cherwell Chester Chorley Colchester Congleton Craven Crawley Crewe and Nantwich Daventry Derby East Devon Eastbourne Eastleigh Ellesmere Port and Neston Elmbridge Epping Forest Fareham Gillingham Gloucester Gosport Great Grimsby Great Yarmouth Halton Harlow Hart Hartlepool Hastings Havant Hereford Hertsmere Huntingdon Hyndburn Ipswich Leominster Lincoln Macclesfield Maidstone Milton Keynes Mole Valley Newcastle-under-Lyme North Hertfordshire Norwich Nuneaton and Bedworth Oadby and Wigston Oxford Pendle Penwith Peterborough Preston Purbeck Reigate and Banstead Rochford Rossendale Rugby Runnymede Rushmoor Scunthorpe Shrewsbury and Atcham South Bedfordshire South Cambridgeshire South Herefordshire South Lakeland Southampton Southend-on-Sea St Albans Stevenage Stoke-on-Trent Stratford-on-Avon Swale Tamworth Tandridge Thamesdown Three Rivers Thurrock Tonbridge and Malling Tunbridge Wells Watford Welwyn Hatfield West Lancashire West Lindsey West Oxfordshire Weymouth and Portland Winchester Woking Wokingham Woodspring Worcester Wyre Forest York
District councils (Scotland)	Aberdeen Angus Annandale and Eskdale Argyll and Bute Badenoch and Strathspey Banff and Buchan Bearsden and Milngavie Berwickshire Caithness Clackmannan Clydebank Clydesdale Cumbernauld and Kilsyth Cumnock and Doon Valley Cunninghame Dumbarton Dundee Dunfermline East Kilbride East Lothian Eastwood Edinburgh Ettrick and Lauderdale Falkirk Glasgow Gordon Hamilton Inverclyde Inverness Kilmarnock and Loudoun Kincardine and Deeside Kirkcaldy Kyle and Carrick Lochaber Midlothian Monklands Moray Motherwell Nairn Nithsdale North East Fife Perth and Kinross Renfrew Ross and Cromarty Roxburgh Skye and Lochalsh Stewartry Stirling Strathkelvin Sutherland Tweeddale West Lothian Wigtown

• 1980 United Kingdom local elections
• May 1980 events in the United Kingdom