1977 City of Glasgow District Council election

1977 City of Glasgow
District Council election
All 72 seats to City of Glasgow District Council; 37 seats needed for a majority
Council Leader before election; ; Labour	Elected Council Leader ; ; No overall control

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 elections 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.

Quick facts All 72 seats to City of Glasgow District Council 37 seats needed for a majority, First party ...

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] In 1980 The Glasgow Herald claimed that the three years of political uncertainty since the 1977 election meant Glasgow District Council had "gained an unenviable reputation for chaos and outrageous behaviour among its members". It further branded the situation "the longest running comedy show in the city" with one notorious incident seeing a Conservative councillor hiding in a chimney-piece during a meeting to "confuse a vote".^[5]

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	Seats	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	0.0	1.6	4,206	0.4
SLP	0	0	0.0	0.3	834	New
Residents	0	0	0.0	0.1	298	0.2
Ind. Conservative	0	0	0.0	0.1	173	New
Scottish Socialist	0	0	0.0	0.0	32	New

Party		Candidate	Votes
	Labour	Helen McGregor (Incumbent)	1,764
	Conservative	W. Queen	1,607
	SNP	Margaret Brown	1,291
	Liberal	E. M. Bennett	132
	Communist	J. Smith	55
Majority			157
Turnout

Party		Candidate	Votes
	Labour	Susan Baird (Incumbent)	1,482
	SNP	M. Graham	1,093
	Conservative	Annette Bennett	970
	Communist	W. Kennedy	71
Majority			389
Turnout

Party		Candidate	Votes
	Labour	H. Macrae (Incumbent)	1,993
	SNP	I. Cameron	1,277
	Conservative	G. Dixon	919
Majority			716
Turnout

Party		Candidate	Votes
	Labour	A. McTaggart (Incumbent)	658
	SNP	A. Livingstone	519
	Conservative	J. McGlinchey	375
	Reidvale, Bluevale, Whitevale, Barrowfield Residents	J. Scroggie	289
Majority			139
Turnout

1977 City of Glasgow District Council election

Aggregate results

Ward results

References

Wikiwand - on

Ward 5: Easterhouse^[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	SNP	Patricia Kennedy	1,879
	Labour	A. Viola	1,779
	Conservative	R. Smith	397
	Communist	G. Cleland	134
Majority			100
Turnout
	SNP gain from Labour

Ward 6: Garthamlock^[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	SNP	E. Hendry	1,780
	Labour	Sarah Hattan	1,591
	Conservative	B. B. S. Clarke	698
	Communist	J. Jackson	209
Majority			189
Turnout
	SNP gain from Labour

Ward 8: Queenslie^[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	SNP	Mary McGhee	1,667
	Labour	W. Fay (Incumbent)	1,568
	Conservative	T. Steven	479
	Communist	H. Holland	53
Majority			99
Turnout
	SNP gain from Labour

Ward 9: Riddrie^[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	C. Gilbert	1,560
	SNP	Jean Hart	1,552
	Labour	W. Galloway (Incumbent)	1,455
	Communist	D. Ford	79
Majority			8
Turnout
	Conservative gain from Labour