1977 City of Glasgow District Council election

Elections for the City of Glasgow District Council took place on 3 May 1977,[1] alongside elections to the councils of Scotland's various other districts. These were the second election to the City of Glasgow District Council, and saw Labour losing their control of the council, losing nearly half of their councillors. Among the losing councillors was Dick Dynes, the Labour group leader. Dynes was replaced as leader by Jean McFadden.

1977 City of Glasgow
District Council election
3 May 1977 (1977-05-03)
All 72 seats to City of Glasgow District Council
37 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader Dick Dynes
Party Labour Conservative
Last election 55 seats 17 seats
Seats won 30 25
Seat change 25 8
Popular vote 100,649 82,113
Percentage 35.1% 28.7%
Swing 12.6 0.1
  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Frank Hannigan
Party SNP Liberal
Last election 0 seats 0 seats
Seats won 16 1
Seat change 16 1
Popular vote 93,695 5,439
Percentage 32.7% 1.9%
Swing 13.5 0.3
Council Leader before election


Labour

 Elected Council Leader


No overall control

While Labour still had the largest number of councillors, the party decided not to try retain power rejecting the possibility of coalition deals with either the Conservatives or the SNP. This paved the way for the Conservatives to form a minority administration, although they also refused to work with the SNP. The SNP group leader Frank Hannigan, reacted angrily to Labour's decision and called on their councillors to resign. He argued they had "ratted on their own voters" by handing power to the Conservatives who had won just 28% of the vote. This meant what would happen at the first meeting of the council was uncertain[2]

When the Council met on 9 May SNP abstentions meant that Labour's nominee David Hodge was elected Lord Provost of Glasgow over the Conservatives Jack Richmond. As the Conservatives had said that they would only form an administration if their candidate was elected as Lord Provost, this caused an uncertain situation. Ultimately Richmond urged his colleagues to form an administration nonetheless and they eventually agreed to do this after an internal vote among the Conservative group. However it was noted in The Glasgow Herald that many of their policies, including the sale of council houses, were unlikely to be supported by the majority on the council.[3]

Ultimately the Conservative administration proved unstable and resigned in September 1979, paving the way for a minority Labour administration to take over.[4]

Aggregate results
1977 City of Glasgow District Council election[5][6]
Party Seats Gains Losses Net gain/loss Seats % Votes % Votes +/−
  Labour 30 25 41.7 35.1 100,649 12.6
  Conservative 25 8 34.7 28.7 82,113 0.1
  SNP 16 16 22.2 32.7 93,695 13.5
  Liberal 1 1 1.4 1.9 5,439 0.3
  Communist 0 0.0 1.6 4,206 0.4
  SLP 0 0.0 0.3 834
  Residents 0 0.0 0.1 298 0.2
  Ind. Conservative 0 0.0 0.1 173
  Scottish Socialist 0 0.0 0.0 32

References
  1. "District Election Special". Glasgow Herald. 5 May 1977. p. 4.
  2. MacCalman, John (6 May 1977). "Labour gives up power". The Glasgow Herald. p. 1. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  3. MacCalman, John (10 May 1977). "Tories rule Glasgow - thanks to one man". The Glasgow Herald. p. 1. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  4. MacCalman, John (14 September 1979). "Battle-weary Tories surrender Glasgow". The Glasgow Herald. p. 1. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  5. J. M. Bochel; D. T. Denver. The Scottish District Elections 1977 (PDF). University of Dundee. pp. 57–62.
  6. "Local Election Summaries 1977". Elections Centre.


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