Greater London Council election, 1973

12 April 1973

92 councillors

	First party	Second party	Third party

Party	Labour	Conservative	Liberal
Seats won	58	32	2

The fourth election to the Greater London Council was held on 12 April 1973. Labour, benefiting both from the unpopularity of the Conservative GLC's transport policy and from the difficulties of the national Conservative government, won a very large majority of 58 seats to 32 for the Conservatives; the Liberals also won their first two seats on the council.

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.

The election result in Croydon North East was particularly close, eventually going to Labour's David Simpson by 11 votes. There had been 44 ballot papers not counted because they had not been validated with the 'official mark'; if they had been counted, the Conservatives would have kept the seat. The Conservatives challenged this election on the grounds that the failure to stamp the ballot papers was probably accidental. As it could not be said that these ballot papers were definitely the product of an attempt to commit electoral fraud, the election result was declared void on 18 July 1974.

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.

Greater London Council election, 1973
Party		Votes	Votes %	+/-	Candidates	Seats	Net Gain/Loss
	Labour	928,034	47.4	+7.5	92	58	+23
	Conservative	743,123	38.0	-12.6	92	32	-33
	Liberal	244,703	12.5	+7.1	60	2	+2
	Communist	11,954	0.6	-1.2	28
	National Front	9,536	0.5		6
	Residents' or Ratepayers'	5,516	0.3		3
	Independent	4,211	0.2		15
	Action Party	3,063	0.2	-0.4	6
	National Independence	2,924	0.1		1
	Independent Conservative	2,393	0.1		2
	Socialist (GB)	1,612	0.1	-0.0	11
	Independent Labour	227	0.0		1

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.

(1972 ←) United Kingdom local elections, 1973 (→ 1974)

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