United Kingdom local elections, 1982

← 1981

6 May 1982

1983 →

All 32 London boroughs, all 36 metropolitan boroughs,
103 out of 296 English districts and all 12 Scottish regions

	Majority party	Minority party	Third party

Leader	Margaret Thatcher	Michael Foot	David Steel & Gang of Four
Party	Conservative	Labour	SDP–Liberal Alliance
Leader since	11 February 1975	10 November 1980	7 July 1976 & 26 March 1981
Percentage	40%	29%	27%
Councillors	10,447	8,774	1,850
Councillors +/-	98	225	395

Local elections were held in the United Kingdom in 1982. The elections coincided with rising popularity of the Conservative government and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, which was mostly attributed to the Falklands War. The projected share of the vote was Conservatives 40%, Labour 29%, Liberal-SDP Alliance 27%.

Elections were held in several English boroughs, including all those in London.

The Conservatives held their ground, losing only 98 seats, leaving them with 10,447 seats.

The main opposition Labour Party, under the leadership of Michael Foot, lost 225 seats, finishing with 8,774 councillors.

For the newly formed Liberal-SDP Alliance, the 1982 local elections were the first annual electoral test. They gained 395 seats and finished with 1,850 councillors. This meant that the Alliance had almost as many votes as Labour, but Labour still had nearly five times as many councillors.

In all 32 London boroughs the whole council was up for election.

‡ New ward boundaries

In 13 metropolitan boroughs the whole council was up for election.

In 13 boroughs there were new ward boundaries, following electoral boundary reviews by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England.

‡ New ward boundaries

23 metropolitan borough councils had one third of their seats up for election.

In 103 districts one third of the council was up for election.

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