1988 Scottish local elections

← 1986

5 May 1988 (1988-05-05)

1990 →

	First party	Second party

Leader	Neil Kinnock	Margaret Thatcher
Party	Labour	Conservative
Leader since	2 October 1983	11 February 1975
Seats won	553	162
Seat change	8	27
Percentage	42.6	19.4
Swing	3.1	2.0

	Third party	Fourth party

Leader	Gordon Wilson	Malcolm Bruce
Party	SNP	SSLD
Leader since	15 September 1979	3 March 1988
Seats won	113	84
Seat change	54	6
Percentage	21.3	8.4
Swing	9.6	4.4

Colours denote the winning party with outright control

Local elections were held in Scotland on 5 May 1988, to elect members to all 53 district councils under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which had established the two-tier system of regions and districts.

National results

Summary of the 1988 Scottish district council election results^[1]
Parties		Votes %	Wards
	Labour	42.6	553
	SNP	21.3	113
	Conservative	19.4	162
	SSLD	8.4	84
	Independent	6.4	231
	Other
Total		n/a	~1158

Results by region

Borders

District			Details
Berwickshire	Conservative	Conservative	Details
Ettrick and Lauderdale	Independent	Independent	Details
Roxburghshire	Independent	Independent	Details
Tweeddale	Independent	Independent	Details

Central

District			Details
Clackmannan	Labour	Labour	Details
Falkirk	Labour	Labour	Details
Stirling	Labour	No overall control	Details

Dumfries and Galloway

District			Details
Annandale and Eskdale	Independent	SSLD	Details
Wigtown	Independent	Independent	Details
Nithsdale	Independent	Labour	Details
Stewartry	Independent	Independent	Details

Fife

District			Details
Dunfermline	Labour	Labour	Details
Kirkcaldy	Labour	Labour	Details
North-East Fife	Alliance	SSLD	Details

Grampian

District			Details
Banff and Buchan	Independent	Independent	Details
City of Aberdeen	Labour	No overall control	Details
Gordon	Independent	No overall control	Details
Kincardine and Deeside	Independent	Independent	Details
Moray	Independent	Independent	Details

Highland

District			Details
Badenoch and Strathspey	Independent	Independent	Details
Caithness	Independent	Independent	Details
Inverness	Independent	Independent	Details
Lochaber	Independent	Independent	Details
Nairn	Independent	Independent	Details
Ross and Cromarty	Independent	Independent	Details
Skye and Lochalsh	Independent	Independent	Details
Sutherland	Independent	Independent	Details

Lothian

District			Details
City of Edinburgh	Labour	Labour	Details
East Lothian	Labour	Labour	Details
Midlothian	Labour	Labour	Details
West Lothian	Labour	Labour	Details

Strathclyde

District			Details
Argyll and Bute	Independent	Independent	Details
Bearsden and Milngavie	Conservative	Conservative	Details
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth	Labour	No overall control	Details
Clydebank	Labour	Labour	Details
Cunninghame	Labour	Labour	Details
Cumnock and Doon Valley	Labour	Labour	Details
Dumbarton	Labour	No overall control	Details
East Kilbride	Labour	Labour	Details
Eastwood	Conservative	Conservative	Details
City of Glasgow	Labour	Labour	Details
Hamilton	Labour	Labour	Details
Inverclyde	Labour	Labour	Details
Kilmarnock and Loudoun	Labour	Labour	Details
Kyle and Carrick	Conservative	Labour	Details
Clydesdale	Labour	Labour	Details
Motherwell	Labour	Labour	Details
Monklands	Labour	Labour	Details
Strathkelvin	Labour	Labour	Details

Tayside

District			Details
Angus	SNP	SNP	Details
City of Dundee	Labour	Labour	Details
Perth and Kinross	Conservative	No overall control	Details

References

^ McConnell, Alan (2004), Scottish Local Government, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-2005-0

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