The 1964 Westminster Council election took place on 7 May 1964 to elect members of

Westminster City Council Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors. The council is currently composed of 31 Labour Party members and 23 Cons ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England. The whole council was up for election and the

Conservative party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

gained control of the council.

Background

These elections were the first to the newly formed borough. Previously elections had taken place in the

Metropolitan Borough of Paddington Paddington was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Boar ...

Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone The Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone was a metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropolitan borough of the County of London from 1900 to 1965. It was based directly on the previously existing civil parishes in England, civil par ...

and

Metropolitan Borough of Westminster The Metropolitan Borough of Westminster was a metropolitan borough in the County of London, England, from 1900 to 1965. City status By royal charter dated 29 October 1900, the borough was granted the title City of Westminster. Westminster had o ...

. These boroughs were joined to form the new London Borough of Westminster by the

London Government Act 1963 The London Government Act 1963 (c. 33) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which created Greater London and a new local government structure within it. The Act significantly reduced the number of local government districts in the ...

. A total of 155 candidates stood in the election for the 60 seats being contested across 31 wards. These included a full slate from the Conservative and Labour parties, while the Liberals stood 31 candidates. Other candidates included 4 from the Communist party. There were 20 single-seat wards, 6 three-seat wards, 4 five-seat wards and 1 two-seat ward. This election had

aldermen An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members them ...

as well as directly elected

councillors A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

. The Conservatives got 7 aldermen and Labour 3. The Council was elected in 1964 as a "shadow authority" but did not start operations until 1 April 1965.

Election result

The results saw the Conservatives gain the new council with a majority of 22 after winning 41 of the 60 seats. Overall turnout in the election was 28.0%. This turnout included 1,343

postal votes Postal voting is voting in an election where ballot papers are distributed to electors (and typically returned) by post, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system. In an ele ...

Ward results

Abbey

Alderney

Aldwych

Baker Street

Berkeley

Cathedral

Cavendish

Churchill

Church Street

Covent Garden

Dolphin

Eaton

Ebury

Grosvenor

Harrow Road

Hyde Park

Knightsbridge

Lancaster Gate

Lords

Maida Vale

Millbank

Queen's Park

Regent Street

Regent's Park

St James's

Soho

Tachbrook

Victoria

Warwick

Westbourne

Wilton

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 1964 Election, 1964 1964 London Borough council elections May 1964 events in the United Kingdom