The third election to the
Greater London Council was held on 9 April 1970 and saw a Conservative victory with a reduced majority.
Electoral arrangements
New constituencies to be used for elections to Parliament and also for elections to the GLC had not yet been settled, so the London boroughs were used as multi-member 'first past the post'
electoral areas . Westminster was joined with the City of London for this purpose. Each electoral area returned between 2 and 4 councillors.
Results
In addition to the 100 councillors, there were sixteen
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 the ...
who divided 11 Conservative and 5 Labour, so that the Conservatives actually had 76 seats to 40 for Labour following the election.
With an electorate of 5,524,384, there was a turnout of 35.2%. Labour recovered from its mauling three years previously, but did so primarily in working-class areas. Consequently, relatively few seats changed hands: Labour won back
Camden,
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
,
Hammersmith,
Lewisham
Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in the London Plan as one of ...
,
Wandsworth
Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
Toponymy
Wandsworth takes its nam ...
, and one seat in
Lambeth. The results did enable Labour to take back control of the
Inner London Education Authority
The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was an ad hoc local education authority for the City of London and the 12 Inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990. The authority was reconstituted as a directly elected body corp ...
and were one of the factors used by
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Harold Wilson in deciding to call a
general election soon after.
Among those who were first elected to the GLC in 1970 were
Tony Banks (Labour,
Hammersmith, later Minister for Sport) and
Sir George Young
George Samuel Knatchbull Young, Baron Young of Cookham, (born 16 July 1941), known as Sir George Young, 6th Baronet, from 1960 to 2015, is a British Conservative Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 2015, h ...
(Conservative,
Ealing, later a cabinet minister under
John Major). The election is also significant as it was at a meeting in support of the Conservative candidates in
Lambeth that John Major met
Norma Johnson, who became his wife.
1 These parties were created by a group of students standing in
Haringey
The London Borough of Haringey (pronounced , same as Harringay) is a London borough in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner London, and by others as part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 by the amalgamation of ...
, who declared that they intended to make a mockery of the election.
By-elections 1970–1973
No seats changed hands in byelections during this term. The Conservatives retained
Kensington and Chelsea on 2 December 1971 after the death of Seton Forbes-Cockell, and
Barnet
Barnet may refer to:
People
*Barnet (surname)
* Barnet (given name)
Places United Kingdom
*Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below.
*East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...
on 19 October 1972 after the death of Arthur Peacock. Labour retained
Wandsworth
Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
Toponymy
Wandsworth takes its nam ...
on 15 June 1972 after the death of Sir Norman Prichard. No seats were vacant at the end of the term.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greater London Council Election, 1970
1970 in London
1970 English local elections
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
April 1970 events in the United Kingdom