1980 United Kingdom local elections

Local elections were held in the United Kingdom in 1980.^[1]^[2] 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[]

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.

Council			Details
Bolton ‡	Conservative	Labour gain	Details
Bradford ‡	Conservative	Labour gain	Details
Calderdale ‡	Conservative	No overall control gain
Coventry ‡	Labour	Labour hold
Doncaster ‡	Labour	Labour hold
Leeds ‡	No overall control	Labour gain	Details
Liverpool ‡	No overall control	No overall control hold	Details
Rochdale ‡	No overall control	Labour gain
Rotherham ‡	Labour	Labour hold
Sheffield ‡	Labour	Labour hold	Details
St Helens ‡	Labour	Labour hold
Stockport ‡	Conservative	Conservative hold
Tameside ‡	Labour	Labour hold
Trafford ‡	Conservative	Conservative hold	Details
Walsall ‡	No overall control	Labour gain
Wigan ‡	Labour	Labour hold	Details
Wirral ‡	Conservative	Conservative hold	Details

‡ New ward boundaries

Third of council[]

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

Council			Details
Barnsley	Labour	Labour hold	Details
Birmingham	No overall control	Labour gain
Bury	Conservative	Conservative hold
Dudley	Conservative	No overall control gain
Gateshead	Labour	Labour hold
Kirklees	No overall control	Labour gain
Knowsley	Labour	Labour hold
Manchester	Labour	Labour hold	Details
Newcastle upon Tyne	Labour	Labour hold
North Tyneside	Labour	Labour hold
Oldham	Conservative	Labour gain
Salford	Labour	Labour hold
Sandwell	Labour	Labour hold
Sefton	Conservative	Conservative hold
Solihull	Conservative	Conservative hold
South Tyneside	Labour	Labour hold
Sunderland	Labour	Labour hold
Wakefield	Labour	Labour hold
Wolverhampton	No overall control	Labour gain	Details

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.

Council			Details
Adur	Conservative	Liberal gain	Details
Amber Valley	No overall control	Labour gain
Barrow-in-Furness	Labour	Labour hold
Basildon	No overall control	No overall control hold	Details
Basingstoke and Deane	Conservative	Conservative hold
Bassetlaw	Labour	Labour hold
Bath	Conservative	Conservative hold	Details
Blackburn	No overall control	No overall control hold
Brentwood	Conservative	Conservative hold
Broadland	Conservative	Conservative hold
Broxbourne	Conservative	Conservative hold	Details
Burnley	Labour	Labour hold
Cambridge	No overall control	No overall control hold
Cannock Chase	Labour	Labour hold
Cherwell	Conservative	Conservative hold
Chester	Conservative	Conservative hold
Chorley	Conservative	Conservative hold
Colchester	Conservative	Conservative hold	Details
Congleton	Conservative	Conservative hold
Craven	Conservative	Conservative hold
Crawley	Labour	Labour hold
Crewe and Nantwich	No overall control	No overall control hold
Daventry	Conservative	No overall control gain
Derby	Labour	Labour hold
East Devon	Conservative	Conservative hold
Eastbourne	Conservative	Conservative hold
Eastleigh	Conservative	Conservative hold
Ellesmere Port and Neston	Labour	Labour hold
Elmbridge	Conservative	Conservative hold
Epping Forest	Conservative	Conservative hold
Fareham	Conservative	Conservative hold
Gillingham	Conservative	Conservative hold
Gloucester	Conservative	Conservative hold	Details
Gosport	Conservative	Conservative hold
Great Grimsby	Labour	Labour hold
Great Yarmouth ‡	Conservative	No overall control gain
Halton	Labour	Labour hold
Harlow	Labour	Labour hold	Details
Hart	Conservative	Conservative hold
Hartlepool	Labour	Labour hold
Hastings	Conservative	No overall control gain
Havant	Conservative	Conservative hold
Hereford	No overall control	Liberal gain
Hertsmere	Conservative	Conservative hold
Huntingdon	Conservative	Conservative hold
Hyndburn	Conservative	Labour gain	Details
Ipswich	Labour	Labour hold	Details
Leominster	Independent	Independent hold
Lincoln	Conservative	Conservative hold	Details
Macclesfield	Conservative	Conservative hold
Maidstone	Conservative	Conservative hold
Milton Keynes	Conservative	Conservative hold
Mole Valley	No overall control	Independent gain
Newcastle-under-Lyme	Labour	Labour hold
North Hertfordshire	Conservative	Conservative hold
Norwich	Labour	Labour hold
Nuneaton and Bedworth	Labour	Labour hold
Oadby and Wigston	Conservative	Conservative hold
Oxford	Conservative	Labour gain
Pendle	No overall control	No overall control hold
Penwith	Independent	Independent hold	Details
Peterborough	No overall control	Labour gain
Preston	Conservative	Labour gain
Purbeck	Independent	Independent hold
Reigate and Banstead	Conservative	Conservative hold
Rochford	Conservative	Conservative hold
Rossendale	Conservative	Conservative hold
Rugby	No overall control	No overall control hold
Runnymede	Conservative	Conservative hold
Rushmoor	Conservative	No overall control gain
Scunthorpe	Labour	Labour hold
Shrewsbury and Atcham	Conservative	No overall control gain
South Bedfordshire	Conservative	Conservative hold
South Cambridgeshire	Independent	Independent hold
South Herefordshire	Independent	Independent hold
South Lakeland	No overall control	No overall control hold
Southampton	Conservative	Conservative hold
Southend-on-Sea	Conservative	Conservative hold
St Albans	Conservative	Conservative hold
Stevenage	Labour	Labour hold	Details
Stoke-on-Trent	Labour	Labour hold
Stratford-on-Avon	Conservative	Conservative hold
Swale	Conservative	Conservative hold
Tamworth	Conservative	Labour gain
Tandridge	Conservative	Conservative hold
Thamesdown	Labour	Labour hold
Three Rivers	Conservative	Conservative hold
Thurrock	No overall control	No overall control hold
Tonbridge and Malling	Conservative	Conservative hold
Tunbridge Wells	Conservative	Conservative hold
Watford	Labour	Labour hold
Welwyn Hatfield	Labour	Labour hold
West Lancashire	Conservative	Conservative hold
West Lindsey	No overall control	No overall control hold
West Oxfordshire	No overall control	No overall control hold
Weymouth and Portland	Conservative	No overall control gain
Winchester	Conservative	Conservative hold
Woking	Conservative	Conservative hold
Wokingham	Conservative	Conservative hold
Woodspring	Conservative	Conservative hold
Worcester	Conservative	Labour gain
Wyre Forest	No overall control	No overall control hold
York	Conservative	No overall control gain

‡ New ward boundaries

Scotland[]

District councils[]

Council			Details
Aberdeen	No overall control	Labour gain
Angus	Conservative	Conservative hold	Details
Annandale and Eskdale	Independent	Independent hold	Details
Argyll	Independent	Independent hold
Badenoch and Strathspey	Independent	Independent hold
Banff and Buchan	Independent	Independent hold	Details
Bearsden and Milngavie	Conservative	Conservative hold
Berwickshire	Conservative	Conservative hold
Caithness	Independent	Independent hold
Clackmannan	SNP	Labour gain
Clydebank	No overall control	Labour gain
Clydesdale	No overall control	No overall control hold
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth	SNP	Labour gain
Cumnock and Doon Valley	Labour	Labour hold	Details
Cunninghame	No overall control	Labour gain
Dumbarton	No overall control	Labour gain
Dundee	No overall control	Labour gain
Dunfermline	Labour	Labour hold
East Kilbride	No overall control	Labour gain
East Lothian	Labour	Labour hold	Details
Eastwood	Conservative	Conservative hold	Details
Edinburgh	Conservative	No overall control gain	Details
Ettrick and Lauderdale	Independent	Independent hold
Falkirk	SNP	Labour gain
Glasgow	No overall control	Labour gain	Details
Gordon	No overall control	No overall control hold
Hamilton	Labour	Labour hold
Inverclyde	Liberal	Labour gain
Inverness	Independent	Independent hold
Kilmarnock and Loudoun	No overall control	Labour gain
Kincardine and Deeside	Independent	Independent hold
Kirkcaldy	No overall control	Labour gain
Kyle and Carrick	No overall control	Labour gain
Lochaber	Independent	Independent hold
Midlothian	No overall control	Labour gain	Details
Monklands	Labour	Labour hold
Moray	Independent	Independent hold
Motherwell	Labour	Labour hold
Nairn	Independent	Independent hold
Nithsdale	Independent	Independent hold
North East Fife	Conservative	Conservative hold	Details
Perth and Kinross	Conservative	Conservative hold
Renfrew
Ross and Cromarty	Independent	Independent hold
Roxburgh	Independent	Independent hold
Skye and Lochalsh	Independent	Independent hold
Stewartry	Independent	Independent hold
Stirling	No overall control	Labour gain
Strathkelvin	No overall control	Labour gain
Sutherland	Independent	Independent hold
Tweeddale	Independent	Independent hold
West Lothian	No overall control	Labour gain
Wigtown	Independent	Independent hold

References[]

Notes

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

Sources

[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.

[1]

[2]

v t Elections and referendums in the United Kingdom
General elections	1801 1802 1806 1807 1812 1818 1820 1826 1830 1831 1832 1835 1837 1841 1847 1852 1857 1859 1865 1868 1874 1880 1885 1886 1892 1895 1900 1906 1910 (Jan) 1910 (Dec) 1918 1922 1923 1924 1929 1931 1935 1945 1950 1951 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 (Feb) 1974 (Oct) 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 2017 2019 Next
Local elections	1889 1892 1894 1896 1909 1934 1949 1955 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022
European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019
Referendums	1975 2011 2016

v t (1979 ←) 1980 United Kingdom local elections (→ 1982)
Metropolitan boroughs	Barnsley Bradford Bolton Leeds Liverpool Manchester Sheffield Trafford Wigan Wirral Wolverhampton
District councils (England)	Adur Basildon Bath Broxbourne Colchester Derby Gloucester Harlow Hyndburn Ipswich Lincoln Penwith Stevenage
District councils (Scotland)	Angus Annandale and Eskdale Banff and Buchan Cumnock and Doon Valley East Lothian Eastwood Edinburgh Glasgow Midlothian North East Fife