1980 Scottish local elections

There were elections for the Scottish district councils in 1980.

These were the third elections held to the 53 district councils established by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The previous elections had been held in 1977. The elections took place a year after the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher had come to power. The local elections, which also took place in England and Wales, were seen as the first electoral test of the Thatcher ministry.^[1]

Background

The poll was held on 1 May and all 1,182 district council seats were to be filled.^[2] Districts formed the second tier in local government in Scotland under the 1975 reorganisation, with regional councils forming the upper tier. It was intended that elections would normally take place on a four-year cycle. Regional elections were also to be on a four-year cycle, held midway between district elections.

Party performance

Labour had a very good electoral performance, more than regaining the ground they had lost at the 1977 elections. They gained 18 councils: 3 from the Scottish National Party, one from Liberals and 14 from no overall control. Notable gains were the cities of Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow.^[3] The Conservatives suffered the loss of Edinburgh but held another six councils. The SNP vote collapsed and they lost control of the three councils they controlled. In a number of councils all of the party's sitting councillors were defeated, most notably in Glasgow where they lost all 16 seats they held. The Liberal Party lost the only council they controlled.^[3]

style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Scottish Conservative Party" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #FDF38E;" data-sort-value="Scottish National Party" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #FFD700;" data-sort-value="Liberal Party (UK)" |

e • d **Summary of the 1980 Scottish District local council election results^[4]**
Parties		Votes	Votes %
Labour		45.4	469
Conservative		24.1	232
Scottish National		15.5	52
Liberal		6.2	33
style="width: 10px" bgcolor=Template:Other/meta/color\|	Independent/Other		8.9
Total

Results by council area

The seats on each council before and after the election were as follows:^[2]^[3]

Borders

Council	Labour	Conservative	Liberal	Independent	Other	Control
Berwickshire	1 (+1)	11 (−1)	0	0	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" \|	Conservative hold
Ettrick and Lauderdale	0	1	0 (−1)	14 (+1)	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
Roxburgh	0 (−1)	5 (+3)	0	11 (−2)	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
Tweeddale	0	0	0	10	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold

Central

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Independent	Other	Control
Clackmannan	7 (+3)	1	4 (−3)	0	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from SNP
Falkirk	27 (+19)	2	4 (−17)	2 (−1)	Independent Labour 1 Independent Scottish Nationalist 0 (−1) style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from SNP
Stirling	10 (+3)	9	0 (−3)	1 (+1)	Independent Conservative 0 (−1) style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from NOC

Dumfries and Galloway

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Independent	Control
Annandale and Eskdale	0	0	0	16 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
Nithsdale	5 (+1)	5 (+5)	4	14 (−6) style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
Stewartry	0	0	0	12 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
Wigtown	0	0	0	14 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold

Fife

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Other	Control
Dunfermline	22 (+3)	5 (−2)	1 (−1)	1 (+1)	1 (−1)	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour hold
Kirkcaldy	23 (+7)	3 (−2)	4 (−4)	0	3	Ratepayers 3 (−1) style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from NOC
North-East Fife	5 (+4)	11 (−5)	0	0	2 (+1)	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" \|	Conservative hold

Grampian

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Control
Banff and Buchan	1 (+1)	0	5 (+4)	0	12 (−5) style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
City of Aberdeen	27 (+5)	13 (−2)	0 (−2)	8 (−1)	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from NOC
Gordon	0	3	0	3	6		No overall control
Kincardine and Deeside	0	2 (−1)	0	1 (+1)	9 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
Moray	0	0	3 (−1)	0	15 (+1) style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold

Highland

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Control
Badenoch and Strathspey	0	0	2 (+2)	0	8 (−2) style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
Caithness‡	1	0	0	1	13 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
Inverness‡	8	0	1	2	17 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
Lochaber	4 (+1)	0	0 (−1)	0	8 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
Nairn	0	0	0 (−2)	0	10 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
Ross and Cromarty	0	1	0	0	19 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
Skye and Lochalsh 2 vacancies	0	0	0	0	9 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
Sutherland 1 vacancy	0	0	0	0	13 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold

‡ Changes in ward boundaries

Lothian

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Control
City of Edinburgh‡	25	31	2	2	2		Conservatives lose to NOC
East Lothian	10	7	0	0	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour hold
Midlothian	13 (+6)	0 (−1)	0 (−4)	1 (+1)	1 (−1) style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from NOC
West Lothian	15 (+7)	0	4 (−6)	0	2 (−1) style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from NOC

‡ Changes in ward boundaries

Strathclyde

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Others	Control
Argyll and Bute	1 (+1)	2 (−2)	3	0	20 (+1)	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" \|	Independent hold
Bearsden and Milngavie	2 (+1)	6 (−1)	0	0	2	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" \|	Conservative hold
Clydebank	8 (+5)	1	0 (−5)	0	0	Scottish Labour 1 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from NOC
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth	6 (+1)	0	4 (−1)	0	0	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from SNP
Cumnock and Doon Valley	8 (+2)	0 (−1)	0	0	2	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour hold
Cunninghame‡	21	5	2	0	1	Moderate Conservatives 1 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from NOC
Dumbarton	8 (+4)	3 (−1)	2 (−2)	0	2 (−1)	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from NOC
East Kilbride	12 (+8)	2	1 (−6)	0	0 (−2)	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from NOC
Eastwood	0	10	0	0	0	Ratepayers 2 style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" \|	Conservative hold
City of Glasgow	58 (+26)	11 (−12)	0 (−16)	3 (+2)	0	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from NOC
Hamilton	17 (+7)	1	0 (−6)	2	0 (−1)	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour hold
Inverclyde	13 (+5)	1	0 (−1)	9 (−4)	0	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from Liberals
Kilmarnock and Loudoun	11 (+4)	5 (−2)	0 (−2)	0	0	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from NOC
Kyle and Carrick	13 (+6)	12 (−5)	0 (−1)	0	0	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from NOC
Lanark	5 (+1)	0	2 (−1)	0	0	Independent Progressives 7		NOC
Motherwell	21 (+2)	3 (−2)	3	0 (−1)	01 (=1)	Communist 1 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour hold
Monklands	18 (+5)	3 (−3)	0 (−1)	0	0 (−1)	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour hold
Strathkelvin	10 (+6)	4	0 (−6)	0	0	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from NOC

Tayside

Council	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Others	Control
Angus	3	12 (+1)	0	0	7 (−1)	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" \|	Conservative hold
City of Dundee	25 (+4)	26 (−2)	0	0	1 (−1)	Ratepayer-Conservatives 11 (−1) Independent Ratepayers-Conservatives 1 (+1) Progressive Conservatives 0 (−1) style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Scottish Labour Party" \|	Labour gain from NOC
Perth and Kinross	5 (+2)	19 (−2)	1	1 (+1)	3 (−1)	0 style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" \|	Conservative hold

References

^ Warman, Christopher (1 May 1980). "Poll 'chance to pass judgment'". The Times. p. 2.
^ ^a ^b "Labour makes gains throughout Britain in local government elections". The Times. 2 May 1980. p. 4.
^ ^a ^b ^c Warman, Christopher (5 May 1980). "Labour wins stronger voice to fight against cuts in local services". The Times. p. 3.
^ Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael (2013). Local Elections in Britain. Routledge. pp. Table 7.5.

[1] Warman, Christopher (1 May 1980). "Poll 'chance to pass judgment'". The Times. p. 2.

[times1-2] "Labour makes gains throughout Britain in local government elections". The Times. 2 May 1980. p. 4.

[warman-3] Warman, Christopher (5 May 1980). "Labour wins stronger voice to fight against cuts in local services". The Times. p. 3.

[Rallings-4] Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael (2013). Local Elections in Britain. Routledge. pp. Table 7.5.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

v t e Elections and referendums in Scotland
Scottish Parliament	1999 2003 2007 2011 2016 2021 Next
Parliament of Scotland	1612 1617 1621 1628 1639 1644 1648 1661 1669 1681 1685 1702
Convention of Estates	1617 1625 1630 1643 1665 1667 1678 1689
UK Parliament	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 2017 2019 2024
Local elections	1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1977 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1995 1999 2003 2007 2012 2017 2022
Referendums	1979 1997 2014
Scotland portal

v t e (1979 ←) 1980 United Kingdom local elections (→ 1982)
Metropolitan boroughs	Barnsley Birmingham Bradford Bolton Bury Calderdale Coventry Doncaster Dudley Gateshead Kirklees Knowsley Leeds Liverpool Manchester Newcastle North Tyneside Oldham Rochdale Rotherham Salford Sandwell Sefton Sheffield Solihull South Tyneside St Helens Stockport Sunderland Tameside Trafford Wakefield Walsall Wigan Wirral Wolverhampton
District councils (England)	Adur Amber Valley Barrow-in-Furness Basildon Basingstoke and Deane Bassetlaw Bath Blackburn Brentwood Broadland Broxbourne Burnley Cambridge Cannock Chase Cherwell Chester Chorley Colchester Congleton Craven Crawley Crewe and Nantwich Daventry Derby East Devon Eastbourne Eastleigh Ellesmere Port and Neston Elmbridge Epping Forest Fareham Gillingham Gloucester Gosport Great Grimsby Great Yarmouth Halton Harlow Hart Hartlepool Hastings Havant Hereford Hertsmere Huntingdon Hyndburn Ipswich Leominster Lincoln Macclesfield Maidstone Milton Keynes Mole Valley Newcastle-under-Lyme North Hertfordshire Norwich Nuneaton and Bedworth Oadby and Wigston Oxford Pendle Penwith Peterborough Preston Purbeck Reigate and Banstead Rochford Rossendale Rugby Runnymede Rushmoor Scunthorpe Shrewsbury and Atcham South Bedfordshire South Cambridgeshire South Herefordshire South Lakeland Southampton Southend-on-Sea St Albans Stevenage Stoke-on-Trent Stratford-on-Avon Swale Tamworth Tandridge Thamesdown Three Rivers Thurrock Tonbridge and Malling Tunbridge Wells Watford Welwyn Hatfield West Lancashire West Lindsey West Oxfordshire Weymouth and Portland Winchester Woking Wokingham Woodspring Worcester Wyre Forest York
District councils (Scotland)	Aberdeen Angus Annandale and Eskdale Argyll and Bute Badenoch and Strathspey Banff and Buchan Bearsden and Milngavie Berwickshire Caithness Clackmannan Clydebank Clydesdale Cumbernauld and Kilsyth 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 Lochaber Midlothian Monklands Moray Motherwell Nairn Nithsdale North East Fife Perth and Kinross Renfrew Ross and Cromarty Roxburgh Skye and Lochalsh Stewartry Stirling Strathkelvin Sutherland Tweeddale West Lothian Wigtown