1981 Greater London Council election
There was an election to the Greater London Council held on 7 May 1981. Councillors were elected to serve until elections in May 1985. Those elections were cancelled and the term was extended until 1 April 1986.[1]
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92 councillors 47 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Results by parliamentary constituency. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The leader of the Labour GLC group Andrew McIntosh led the party into the election. Within 24 hours of the result, however, McIntosh's leadership was toppled by Ken Livingstone; a member of the party's left-wing. Livingstone was then elected GLC leader.[2]
This was the last election to the GLC. The Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher soon took the decision to abolish the council in the mid-1980s, out of partisan concern that it would choose to defy right-wing policies. For more information on this see the article, Greater London Council. Following the abolition of the GLC, there was a direct election to the Inner London Education Authority in 1986.
Results
Party | Votes | Seats | ||||||
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Number | % | +/- | Stood | Seats | % | +/- | ||
Labour||939,457 | 41.8 | ![]() | 92 | 50 | 54.3 | ![]() | ||
Conservative||894,234 | 39.7 | ![]() | 92 | 41 | 44.6 | ![]() | ||
Liberal||323,856 | 14.4 | ![]() | 89 | 1 | 1.1 | ![]() | ||
National Front||21,582 | 1.0 | ![]() | 41 | 0||||![]() | ||||
Social Democratic Alliance | 21,582 | 1.0 | n/a | 10 | 0 | ![]() | ||
Ecology||17,515 | 0.8 | ![]() | 38 | 0||||![]() | ||||
Independent||7,763 | 0.3 | ![]() | 25 | 0||||![]() | ||||
New National Front||5,877 | 0.3 | n/a||18 | 0||||![]() | |||||
Communist||5,275 | 0.2 | ![]() | 16 | 0||||![]() | ||||
Nationalist Party||4,857 | 0.2 | n/a||23 | 0||||![]() | |||||
Workers Revolutionary||2,753 | 0.1 | n/a||16 | 0||||![]() | |||||
Save London Action Group | 1,727 | 0.1 | n/a | 13 | 0 | ![]() | ||
Abolish the GLC | 1,158 | 0.1 | n/a | 7 | 0 | ![]() | ||
Irish National Party | 793 | 0.0 | n/a | 3 | 0 | ![]() | ||
Fellowship||637 | 0.0 | ![]() | 0||||![]() | |||||
Ind. Conservative||362 | 0.0 | ![]() | 0||||![]() | |||||
New Britain||346 | 0.0 | ![]() | 0||||![]() | |||||
Workers (Leninist) | 145 | 0.0 | n/a | 1 | 0 | ![]() | ||
Revolutionary Communist||116 | n/a | ![]() | 0||||![]() | |||||
Socialist (GB)||83 | n/a | ![]() | 0||||![]() |
Turnout: 2,250,118 people voted. All parties shown.[3]
References
Footnotes
- Andrew McIntosh led the party into the election. Within 24 hours however McIntosh's leadership was toppled by Ken Livingstone; a member of the party's left-wing.