1981 Greater London Council election
There was an election to the Greater London Council held on 7 May 1981. Councillors were elected to serve until elections in May 1985. Those elections were cancelled and the term was extended until 1 April 1986.[1]
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92 councillors 47 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Results by parliamentary constituency. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The leader of the Labour GLC group Andrew McIntosh led the party into the election. Within 24 hours of the result, however, McIntosh's leadership was toppled by Ken Livingstone; a member of the party's left-wing. Livingstone was then elected GLC leader.[2]
This was the last election to the GLC. The Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher soon took the decision to abolish the council in the mid-1980s, out of partisan concern that it would choose to defy right-wing policies. For more information on this see the article, Greater London Council. Following the abolition of the GLC, there was a direct election to the Inner London Education Authority in 1986.
Results
| Party | Votes | Seats | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | +/- | Stood | Seats | % | +/- | ||
Labour||939,457||41.8|| 8.9||92||50||54.3||22 | ||||||||
Conservative||894,234||39.7|| 12.8||92||41||44.6||23 | ||||||||
| Liberal||323,856||14.4||6.6||89||1||1.1||1 | ||||||||
National Front||21,582||1.0||4.4||41||0|||| | ||||||||
| Social Democratic Alliance | 21,582 | 1.0 | n/a | 10 | 0 | | ||
| Ecology||17,515||0.8||0.7||38||0|||| | ||||||||
| Independent||7,763||0.3||0.2||25||0|||| | ||||||||
| New National Front||5,877||0.3||n/a||18||0|||| | ||||||||
| Communist||5,275||0.2||0.1||16||0|||| | ||||||||
| Nationalist Party||4,857||0.2||n/a||23||0|||| | ||||||||
| Workers Revolutionary||2,753||0.1||n/a||16||0|||| | ||||||||
| Save London Action Group | 1,727 | 0.1 | n/a | 13 | 0 | | ||
| Abolish the GLC | 1,158 | 0.1 | n/a | 7 | 0 | | ||
| Irish National Party | 793 | 0.0 | n/a | 3 | 0 | | ||
| Fellowship||637||0.0||||1||0|||| | ||||||||
| Ind. Conservative||362||0.0||||1||0|||| | ||||||||
| New Britain||346||0.0||||1||0|||| | ||||||||
| Workers (Leninist) | 145 | 0.0 | n/a | 1 | 0 | | ||
| Revolutionary Communist||116||n/a||||1||0|||| | ||||||||
| Socialist (GB)||83||n/a||||1||0|||| | ||||||||
Turnout: 2,250,118 people voted. All parties shown.[3]
References
| County councils (England) |
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| County councils (Wales) |
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| Metropolitan counties |
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| Unicameral area | |
| District councils (Northern Ireland) |
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| Sui generis |
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 Elections and referendums in London | |
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| Mayor of London | |
| London Assembly | |
| Inner London Education Authority | |
| Greater London Council | |
| London County Council | |
| Borough Councils | |
| Referendums | |
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Footnotes
- Andrew McIntosh led the party into the election. Within 24 hours however McIntosh's leadership was toppled by Ken Livingstone; a member of the party's left-wing.