Greater London Council election, 1973

Greater London Council election, 1973

12 April 1973
92 councillors 47 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Party Labour Conservative Liberal Seats won 58 32 2 Seat change 23 33 2 Popular vote 928,034 743,123 244,703 Percentage 47.4% 38.0% 12.5% Swing 7.5% 12.6% 7.1%
Results by parliamentary constituency.
Council Control before election Conservative Party (UK) Council control after election Labour Party (UK)

The fourth election to the Greater London Council was held on 12 April 1973. Labour won a large majority of 58 seats to 32 for the Conservatives; the Liberals also won their first two seats on the council.^[1]

Electoral arrangements

As there had been a boundary commission report with new Parliamentary constituencies which coincided with the border of Greater London, the electoral system was changed (as had always been intended) so that the GLC was elected from single member electoral divisions which were identical with the Parliamentary constituencies.

Results

With an electorate of 5,313,470, there was a turnout of 36.8%. In addition to the 92 councillors, there were sixteen Aldermen who divided 9 Labour and 6 Conservative, so that Labour actually had 67 seats to 38 for the Conservatives following the election.

Among those who were first elected to the GLC in 1973 were Ken Livingstone (Labour, Lambeth, Norwood), later to lead it, Andrew McIntosh (Labour, Haringey, Tottenham) who was his brief moderate rival for the Labour leadership, and Serge Lourie (Labour, Havering Hornchurch), who became a founder member of the SDP and Leader of the LB Richmond upon Thames in 2001.

Party		Votes			Seats
		Number	%	+/-	Stood	Seats	%	+/-
	Labour	928,034	47.4	7.5	92	58	63.0	23
	Conservative	743,123	38.0	12.6	92	32	34.8	33
	Liberal	244,703	12.5	7.1	60	2	2.2	2
	Communist	11,954	0.6	1.2	28	0
	National Front	9,536	0.5	n/a	6	0
	Residents' or Ratepayers'	5,516	0.3	n/a	3	0
	Independent	4,211	0.2	0.1	15	0
	Action Party	3,063	0.2	0.4	6	0
	National Independence	2,924	0.1	n/a	1	0
	Ind. Conservative	2,393	0.1	n/a	2	0
	Socialist (GB)	1,612	0.1		11	0
	Independent Labour	227	0.0	n/a	1	0

By-elections 1973-1977

The first byelection of the term was caused by the court voiding the election in Croydon North East (see above). On 5 September 1974 the former Conservative member Billie Morgan successfully regained the seat she had narrowly lost. Labour retained seats at Greenwich on 24 October 1974 and Dagenham on 30 January 1975 caused by the deaths of sitting councillors. The Conservatives kept their seats at Finchley on 15 May 1975 caused by the resignation of Roland Freeman and St. Marylebone on 8 April 1976 caused by the resignation of former GLC leader Desmond Plummer.

References