Scottish local elections, 1974

	First party	Second party


Leader	Harold Wilson	Edward Heath
Party	Labour	Conservative
Leader since	14 February 1963	28 July 1965

	Third party	Fourth party

Leader	William Wolfe	Jeremy Thorpe
Party	SNP	Liberal
Leader since	1 June 1969	18 January 1967

There were elections for the Scottish district councils on Tuesday 7 May 1974, for both the new regional and district councils, between the two United Kingdom general elections of February and October in that same year.

These were the first elections held to the 53 district councils established by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The Labour Party did reasonably well and the Scottish National Party (SNP) did not. The councillors acted as "shadow" councils until May 1975, when the Monarchy of the United Kingdom approved by Royal Assent the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.^[1]

Results

National results

Result of the Regional elections.

Summary of the 1974 Scottish local regional election results^[2]^[3]^[4]


Parties		Votes	Votes %	Wards
	Labour	658,089	38.5	172
	Conservative	488,905	28.6	112
	SNP	215,502	12.6	18
	Liberal	87,333	5.1	11
	Independent/Other	261,372	15.3	114/5
Total

Result of the District elections.

Summary of the 1974 Scottish District local council election results^[2]^[3]


Parties		Votes	Votes %	Wards
	Labour	619,531	38.4	428
	Conservative	433,287	26.8	241
	SNP	200,307	12.4	62
	Liberal	80,232	5.0	17
	Independent/Other	280,946	17.5	345/17
Total

Note: Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles were governed at the district level as unitary authorities, meaning they were not included in any larger region.

Regional Results

Regional Councils^[3]

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Other	Total Seats		Details
Borders‡	0	7	0	3	13	0	29	Independent	Details
Central‡	17	4	9	0	3	1	34	Labour	Details
Dumfries and Galloway‡	2	0	0	0	33	0	35	Independent	Details
Fife‡	26	10	0	0	3	3 (1 Communist)	42	Labour	Details
Grampian‡	13	28	0	2	10	0	53	Conservative	Details
Highland‡	4	2	1	3	37	0	47	Independent	Details
Lothian‡	24	19	3	1	1	1	49	No overall control	Details
Orkney‡								Independent	Details
Shetland‡								Independent	Details
Strathclyde‡	71	20	5	2	5	0	103	Labour	Details
Tayside‡	15	22	0	0	9	0	46	No overall control	Details
Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)‡								Independent	Details

District Councils^[3]

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Other	Total Seats
Borders‡	1	9	0	0	44	0	54
Central‡	29	9	21	0	8	0	67
Dumfries and Galloway‡	5	1	1	0	61	2	70
Fife‡	43	24	2	1	10	4	84
Grampian‡	30	25	1	4	48	0	108
Highland‡	4	0	4	2	99	0	109
Lothian‡	62	38	8	3	5	1	127
Orkney‡
Shetland‡
Strathclyde‡	225	92	25	7	49	8	406
Tayside‡	29	43	0	0	21	1	94
Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)‡

The seats on each council after the election were as follows:^[5]

Borders

Council	Labour	Conservative	Independent	Other
Berwickshire	0	10	2	0	Conservative
Ettrick and Lauderdale	1	0	14	0	Independent
Roxburgh	0	0	13	Border Independents 3	Independent
Tweeddale	0	0	10	0	Independent

Central

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Independent	Other
Clackmannan	5	1	5	0	Scottish Labour 1	No overall control
Falkirk	16	2	12	3	Independent Labour 1 Non-Party 2	No overall control
Stirling	7	8	4	1	0	NOC

Dumfries and Galloway

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Independent	Other
Annandale and Eskdale	0	0	0	14	0	Independent
Nithsdale	6	1	1	17	Non-Party 5	Independent
Stewartry	0	0	0	12	0	Independent
Wigtown	0	0	0	14	0	Independent

Fife

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Other
Dunfermline	17	5	3	1	4	0	Labour
Kirkcaldy	24	5	0	0	2	Ratepayers 4 Communist 1	NOC
North-East Fife	0	13	0	0	5	0	Conservative

Grampian

Council	Labour	Conservative	Liberal	Independent
Banff and Buchan	0	0	0	18	Independent
City of Aberdeen	28	17	3	0	Labour
Gordon	0	3	2	7	Independent
Kincardine and Deeside	0	2	0	10	Independent
Moray	0	0	0	18	Independent

Highland

Council	Labour	SNP	Independent
Badenoch and Strathspey	0	0	10	Independent hold
Caithness	0	0	15	Independent hold
Inverness	0	0	15	Independent hold
Lochaber 2 vacancies	3	0	7	Independent
Nairn	0	3	7	Independent
Ross and Cromarty	0	0	20	Independent hold
Skye and Lochalsh	0	0	10	Independent
Sutherland	0	0	14	Independent

Lothian

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent
City of Edinburgh	27	31	2	3	1	No overall control
East Lothian	10	6	0	0	1	Labour
Midlothian	11	2	1	0	1	Labour
West Lothian	10	0	8	0	3	NOC

Strathclyde

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Others
Argyll and Bute 1 vacancy	0	0	0	0	25	0	Independent
Bearsden and Milngavie	1	5	0	0	4	0	No overall control
Clydebank	5	1	3	0	0	Scottish Labour 1	Labour
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth	3	0	7	0	0	0	SNP
Cumnock and Doon Valley	10	0	0	0	1	Scottish Labour 0	Labour
Cunninghame	14	0	1	0	2	Moderate Conservatives 7	Labour
Dumbarton	8	2	0	0	5	0	Labour
East Kilbride	5	2	7	0	1	0	No overall control
Eastwood	0	10	0	0	0	Ratepayers 2	Conservative
City of Glasgow	54	16	1	0	0	Independent Conservative 1	Labour
Hamilton	13	2	2	2	1	Independent Labour 0	Labour
Inverclyde	14	2	0	6	1	0	Labour
Kilmarnock and Loudoun	12	4	0	0	0	0	Labour
Kyle and Carrick	10	15	0	0	0	0	Conservative
Lanark	4	0	2	0	8	0	Independent
Motherwell	25	1	2	1	1	Communist 0	Labour
Monklands	15	4	1	0	1	0	Labour
Strathkelvin	6	5	3	0	0	0	NOC

Tayside

Council	Labour	Conservative	Independent	Others
Angus	3	11	8	0	Conservative
City of Dundee	22	20	2	Real Labour 1 Monifeith Ratepayers 0	NOC
Perth and Kinross	4	19	6	0	Conservative

References

↑ Faux, Ronald (5 May 1977). "SNP seizes 107 seats". The Times. pp. 1, 4.
1 2 Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael (2013). Local Elections in Britain. Routledge. pp. Table 7.5.
1 2 3 4 https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/9006/1/1976_ref%202_Appendices.pdf
↑ Scottish Elections
↑ "Results of Scottish district council elections". The Times. 5 May 1977. p. 4.

Elections and referendums in Scotland

Scottish elections	Pre-1707 1999 2003 2007 2011 2016 Next

UK elections	1922 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015

Local elections	1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1977 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1995 1999 2003 2007 2012 2017

Referendums	1979 1997 2014

Local referendums	Scottish licensing referendums, 1920 Strathclyde (water) 1994 Edinburgh (congestion charge) 2005

See also: Elections in the Kingdom of Scotland (Pre-1707) Great Britain (1707–1800) United Kingdom Politics of Scotland

(1973 ←) United Kingdom local elections, 1974 (→ 1975)

London boroughs	Barking Barnet Bexley Brent Bromley Camden Croydon Ealing Enfield Greenwich Hackney Hammersmith Haringey Harrow Havering Hillingdon Hounslow Islington Kensington and Chelsea Kingston upon Thames Lambeth Lewisham Merton Newham Redbridge Richmond upon Thames Southwark Sutton Tower Hamlets Waltham Forest Wandsworth Westminster

District councils (Scotland)	Aberdeen Angus Annandale and Eskdale Argyll Badenoch and Strathspey Banff and Buchan Bearsden and Milngavie Berwickshire Bishopbriggs and Kirkintilloch Caithness Clackmannan Clydebank Cumbernauld 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 Lanark Lochaber Merrick Midlothian Monklands Moray Motherwell Nairn Nithsdale North East Fife Perth and Kinross Renfrew Ross and Cromarty Roxburgh Skye and Lochalsh Stewartry Stirling Sutherland Tweeddale West Lothian

Regional councils (Scotland)	Borders Central Dumfries and Galloway Fife Grampian Highland Lothian Orkney Shetland Strathclyde Tayside Western Isles

See also: UK General election (Feb) UK General election (Oct)

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