Scottish local elections, 1967

Scottish local elections were held in 1967 to elect members to the various Corporations, Burghs, and County Boards of Scotland.

SNP Gains

The election was contested by a large number of SNP candidates, following on from the parties success good showing in the 1967 Glasgow Pollok by-election. The SNP ultimately won 16% of the vote in the municipal elections, and won 23 seats.^[1] The election also saw the SNP gain their first Councillor on Clydebank Burgh Council.^[2]

Conservative entry into Local Government

The elections also saw the first time that Conservatives contested local elections on a Conservative ticket. Previously the Conservative party had not contested local elections, with their place being instead fulfilled by local anti-socialist groups known as the Progressives. Despite these organisational differences however, the Progressives were seen be the electorate as Tories, and the two shared the same ideology.^[3]

The Conservative party's decision to partake in local elections was largely driven out of a desire to increase party efficiency. In contrast to the Conservatives, Labour had been competing in Scottish local elections for many years. This was seen as providing Labour party activists a great deal of valuable campaigning experience, whilst the Conservative party electoral machine had only been deployed in the intermittent general elections and by-elections. The lack of involvement in local elections also meant that the Conservatives were unable to assess party support as well as Labour. Even in 1974, when the Conservatives had been fighting local elections for several years, the party was still taken by surprise by the surge in SNP support in what were seen as traditional Scottish Tory heartlands.^[3]

Results

Municipal Results

Municipal Aggregate

Municipal Breakdown^[4]

Council	Labour	Progressives	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Other	Turnout	Total Seats Contested	Control		Details
Aberdeen	6	6 (2)							12		Labour	Details
Dundee	6 (1)	6 (1)	0	0	0	0	0		12		No overall control	Details
Edinburgh	9 (3)	14 (1)	2 (2)	0	0	0	0		25		Progressives	Details
Glasgow	20 (3)	17 (2)	1 (1)						38		Labour	Details

Council	Labour	Progressives	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Other	Turnout	Total Seats Contested	Control		Details
Burntisland	1 (3)	3 (3)							4		Progressives	Details
Dumbarton	2 (1)	3 (1) (Mods)							5		Moderates	Details
Hamilton	3 (1)	3 (1) (Unionists)							6		Labour	Details
Paisley	5 (2)					4 (2)	1	40.4 (4.2)	10		Labour	Details
Penicuik	0 (2)					3 (2)			3		Independent	Details

County Results

County Breakdown

References

Elections and referendums in Scotland
Scottish elections	Pre-1707 1999 2003 2007 2011 2016 Next
UK elections	1801 co-option 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
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 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