United Kingdom local elections, 1985

United Kingdom local elections, 1985

2 May 1985 (England & Wales) 15 May 1985 (Northern Ireland)

All 39 non-metropolitan counties, 1 sui generis authority, all 26 Northern Irish districts and all 8 Welsh counties   Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Margaret Thatcher Neil Kinnock David Steel & David Owen Party Conservative Labour SDP–Liberal Alliance Leader since 11 February 1975 2 October 1983 7 July 1976 & 13 June 1983 Percentage 32% 39% 26% Councillors 10,191 8,746 2,633 Councillors +/- 202 124 302

Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.

Local elections were held in the United Kingdom in 1985.^[1][2][3][4] The projected share of the vote was Labour 39%, Conservative 32%, Liberal-SDP Alliance 26%. Labour had the largest share of the vote in local council elections for the first time since 1981.

Both Conservatives and Labour lost some seats to the Liberal-SDP Alliance, who were rebuilding under the leadership of David Owen and enjoying strong showings (including a brief lead) in the opinion polls.

The overall results were as follows;

Conservative losses: 202
Number of Conservative councillors: 10,191

Labour losses: 124
Number of Labour councillors: 8,746

Liberal-SDP Alliance gains: 302
Number of Liberal-SDP Alliance councillors: 2,633

England

Non-metropolitan county councils

‡ New electoral division boundaries

Sui generis

Northern Ireland

Wales

County councils

References

• Local elections 2006. House of Commons Library Research Paper 06/26.
• Vote 2001 BBC News

(1984 ←) United Kingdom local elections, 1985 (→ 1986)
County council elections (England)	Avon Bedfordshire Berkshire Buckinghamshire Cambridgeshire Cheshire Cleveland Cornwall Cumbria Derbyshire Devon Dorset Durham East Sussex Essex Gloucestershire Hampshire Hereford and Worcester Hertfordshire Humberside Isle of Wight Kent Lancashire Leicestershire Lincolnshire Norfolk North Yorkshire Northamptonshire Northumberland Nottinghamshire Oxfordshire Shropshire Somerset Staffordshire Suffolk Surrey Warwickshire West Sussex Wiltshire
County council elections (Wales)	Clwyd Dyfed Gwent Gwynedd Mid Glamorgan Powys South Glamorgan West Glamorgan
District councils (Northern Ireland)	Northern Irish District councils Antrim Ards Armagh Ballymena Ballymoney Banbridge Belfast Carrickfergus Castlereagh Coleraine Cookstown Craigavon Derry Down Dungannon Fermanagh Larne Limavady Lisburn Magherafelt Moyle Newry and Mourne Newtownabbey North Down Omagh Strabane
Sui generis	Isles of Scilly

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