1986 Scottish regional elections

1986 Scottish regional elections

8 May 1986 (1986-05-08)

First party Second party   Leader Neil Kinnock Margaret Thatcher Party Labour Conservative Leader since 2 October 1983 11 February 1975 Seats won 223 65 Seat change 37 54 Percentage 43.9 16.9 Swing 6.3 8.2   Third party Fourth party   Leader David Steel Gordon Wilson Party Alliance SNP Leader since 1976 15 September 1979 Seats won 40 36 Seat change 15 13 Percentage 15.1 18.2 Swing 3.0 4.8

Colours denote the winning party with outright control

Results by ward

Regional elections were held in Scotland on Thursday 8 May 1986, under the terms of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The previous elections had been held in 1982. The elections took place a year before the Conservative's third general election victory. Elections took place in England and Wales on the same day.

National results

Summary of the 1986 Scottish regional council election results^[1]

Parties		Votes	Votes %	+/-	Wards	Net Gain/Loss
	Labour		43.9		223
	SNP		18.2		36
	Conservative		16.9		65
	Alliance		15.1		40
	Independent		4.8		79
Total			45.2	??	524

Party performance

Labour continued to make gains, increasing their number of councillors in most of the areas contested. The Conservatives suffered heavy losses, losing control of Lothian council to Labour and Grampian and Tayside councils to no overall control. They lost all their Councillors in Dumfries and Galloway. The SNP vote failed to recover from its decline since 1980.

Results by council area

Scottish Regional election results, 1986^[2]

Council	Lab	Con	All	SNP	Other	Total seats	Turnout	Control		Details
Borders	0	6 (-2)	2 (-1)	2 (+1)	14 (+1)	23	37.02%		Independent hold	Details
Central	23 (+1)	4	1	5	1 (-1)	34	47.49%		Labour hold	Details
Dumfries and Galloway	7 (+3)	0 (-4)	4 (+2)	5 (+2)	19 (-3)	35	40.66%		Independent hold	Details
Fife	30 (+3)	4 (-5)	8 (+3)	2 (+1)	2 (-1)	46	46.74%		Labour hold	Details
Grampian	18 (+2)	15 (-11)	12 (+7)	9 (+5)	3	57	35.61%		No overall control gain from Conservatives	Details
Highland	6 (+1)	2 (+1)	2 (-1)	2 (+1)	40 (-2)	52	41.85%		Independent Hold	Details
Lothian	30 (+7)	13 (-8)	3	2 (+1)	1	49	49.21%		Labour gain from NOC	Details
Orkney	0	-	-	-	24	24	??%		Independent Hold	Details
Shetland	4 (+1)	-	-	-	21 (-1)	25	??%		Independent Hold	Details
Strathclyde	88 (+8)	6 (-8)	5 (+1)	1 (-1)	3	103	45.46%		Labour hold	Details
Tayside	20 (+8)	14 (-13)	1 (+1)	9 (+4)	2	46	47.64%		No overall control gain from Conservative	Details
Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)	0	-	-	-	30	30	??%		Independent Hold	Details

References

1. McConnell, Alan (2004), Scottish Local Government, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-2005-0
2. "How the parties fared region by region". The Glasgow Herald. 10 May 1986. p. 6. Retrieved 28 December 2016.