2007 Scottish local elections

The 2007 Scottish local elections were held on 3 May 2007, the same day as Scottish Parliament elections and local elections in parts of England. All 32 Scottish councils had all their seats up for election – all Scottish councils are unitary authorities.

2007 Scottish local elections

← 2003 3 May 2007 (2007-05-03) 2012 →
All 1,222 seats to Scottish councils
Turnout	52.8% (3.2%)[1]
First party Second party   Leader Alex Salmond Jack McConnell Party SNP Labour Leader since 3 September 2004 22 November 2001 Last election 181 seats, 24.1% 509 seats, 32.6% Seats won 363 348 Seat change 182 161 First preferences 585,885 590,085 First preferences (%) 27.9% 28.1% Swing (pp) 3.8% 4.5%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Nicol Stephen Annabel Goldie Party Liberal Democrats Conservative Leader since 27 June 2005 31 October 2005 Last election 175 seats, 14.5% 122 seats, 15.1% Seats won 166 143 Seat change 9 21 First preferences 266,693 327,591 First preferences (%) 12.7% 15.6% Swing (pp) 1.8% 0.5%
Popular vote by council areas. Council controls post elections Council controls post elections
Colours denote the party with the most seats
Colours denote the party with largest share of first preference votes by ward

Background

This was the first election for local government in Great Britain to use the Single Transferable Vote (the system is used in Northern Ireland), as implemented by the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004. The new electoral system resulted in most councils being under no overall control, a situation in which no single political group achieves a majority of seats.^[2]

eCounting fiasco

Scanners supplied by DRS Data Services Limited of Milton Keynes, in partnership with Electoral Reform Services (ERS), the trading arm of the Electoral Reform Society, were used to electronically count the paper ballots in both the Scottish council elections and the Scottish Parliament general election.^[3][4]

Because of the fiasco in 2007 of holding parliamentary (Holyrood) and local elections simultaneously, the following Scottish local elections were held in 2012 instead of 2011.

Party performance

The Labour party lost control of all but two of its councils, Glasgow and North Lanarkshire, but received the largest number of votes, while the SNP were the main beneficiaries of the new voting system, picking up over 180 new seats. The Scottish Greens elected their first-ever councillors, winning eight seats.^[5][6]

Results

Colours denote the winning party with outright control

Summary of the May 2007 Scottish council election results

Party		First-preference votes			Councils		2003 seats		2007 seats
		Count	Of total (%)	Change	Count	Change	Count	Of total (%)	Count	Of total (%)	Change
	No overall control	—			27	20	—		—
	Labour	590,085	28.1	4.5%	2		—		348	28.5%	161
	SNP	585,885	27.9	3.8%	1		—		363	29.7%	182
	Conservative	327,591	15.6	0.5%	2		—		143	11.7%	21
	Liberal Democrats	266,693	12.7	1.8%	0		—		166	13.6%	9
	Independent	228,894	10.9	0.8%	0		—		192[a]	15.7%	38
	Other	102,897	4.9	1.3%	0		—		10[b]	0.8%	6
Total		2,099,945	100.0	±0.0	32		1,222	1,222	1,222	100.00

Councils

The notional results in the following table are based on a document that John Curtice and Stephen Herbert (Professors at the University of Strathclyde) produced on 3 June 2005, calculating the effect of the introduction of the Single Transferable Vote on the 2003 Scottish local elections.^[7]

Council	2003 result		Notional control (based on 2003 results)	2007 result		Details
Aberdeen City		No overall control (LD + Con)	NOC		No overall control (LD + SNP)	Details
Aberdeenshire		No overall control (LD + Ind)	NOC		No overall control (LD + Con)	Details
Angus		SNP	NOC		No overall control (Ind + Con + LD + Lab)	Details
Argyll and Bute		Independent	Independent		No overall control (Ind + SNP)	Details
Clackmannanshire		Labour	NOC		Labour (Lab minority)	Details
Dumfries and Galloway		Labour (Lab minority[c])	NOC		No overall control (Con + LD)	Details
Dundee City		No overall control (Lab + LD+ Con)	NOC		No overall control (Lab + LD+ Con)	Details
East Ayrshire		Labour	Labour		SNP (SNP minority)	Details
East Dunbartonshire		Liberal Democrats (LD minority[d])	NOC		No overall control (Lab + Con)	Details
East Lothian		Labour	NOC		No overall control (SNP + LD)	Details
East Renfrewshire		No overall control (Lab + LD)	NOC		No overall control (Lab + LD + Ind + Con)	Details
City of Edinburgh		Labour (Lab minority[e])	NOC		No overall control (LD + SNP)	Details
Falkirk		No overall control (SNP + Ind + Con)	NOC		No overall control (Lab + Ind + Con)	Details
Fife		Labour (Lab minority[f])	NOC		No overall control (LD + SNP)	Details
Glasgow City		Labour	Labour		Labour	Details
Highland		Independent	Independent		No overall control (Ind + SNP)	Details
Inverclyde		Liberal Democrats	NOC		Labour (Lab minority)	Details
Midlothian		Labour	NOC		Labour (Lab minority)	Details
Moray		Independent	Independent		No overall control (Ind + Con)	Details
Na h-Eileanan Siar		Independent	Independent		Independent	Details
North Ayrshire		Labour	Labour		Labour (Lab minority)	Details
North Lanarkshire		Labour	Labour		Labour	Details
Orkney		Independent	Independent		Independent	Details
Perth and Kinross		No overall control (SNP + LD + Ind)	NOC		No overall control (SNP + LD)	Details
Renfrewshire		Labour	NOC		No overall control (SNP + LD)	Details
Scottish Borders		No overall control (Ind + Con)	NOC		No overall control (Ind + Con + LD)	Details
Shetland		Independent	Independent		Independent	Details
South Ayrshire		Conservative (Con minority[g])	NOC		Conservative (Con minority)	Details
South Lanarkshire		Labour	Labour		Labour (Lab minority)	Details
Stirling		Labour (Lab minority[h])	NOC		Labour (Lab minority)	Details
West Dunbartonshire		Labour	Labour		No overall control (SNP + Ind)	Details
West Lothian		Labour	NOC		No overall control (SNP + Ind)	Details

Notes

1. 193 according to the BBC website
2. 8 Scottish Greens, 1 Scottish Socialist and 1 Solidarity councillor. Separate vote figures not found
3. Labour minority control. The council was previously run by a coalition of Scottish Liberal Democrats, Independents and the SNP.
4. Liberal Democrats lack a majority (LD: 12 councillors; opposition: 12 councillors
5. Labour lacked a majority after by-election loss to the SNP (Lab: 29 councillors; opposition: 29 councillors)
6. Labour minority administration
7. Conservative control, on a cut of the cards (Con: 15 councillors; opposition: 15 councillors)
8. Labour lacked a majority after by-election loss to the SNP (Lab: 11 councillors; opposition: 11 councillors)