The final

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

municipal elections were held on 5 May 1972, with a third of the councillors up for re-election. The wide-reaching reforms set out in the Local Government Act 1972 had scheduled the council's abolition to coincide with its replacement by the enlarged successor Leeds metropolitan district on 1 April 1974. Prior to the election, a by-election had resulted in

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

gaining the seat in Castleton from the Liberals. Sca
here
/ref> Labour repeated all of the gains of the previous year's gains (in the 1971 Leeds City Council election), with the exceptions of the Castleton and

Osmondthorpe Osmondthorpe a district of east Leeds in West Yorkshire, England is considered part of the Halton Moor district. It is situated in the LS9 Leeds postcode area, two miles (3 km) to the east of Leeds city centre between East End Park and ...

seats - both of which they already held; the latter being their solitary gain in the 1969 election. Much like Labour's performance in the 1969 election, the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

halted their decline - at least in vote share (like Labour, their total vote actually fell a further 5,000, setting a new party low). Having won full representation in West

Hunslet Hunslet () is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is southeast of the city centre and has an industrial past. It is situated in the Hunslet and Riverside ward of Leeds City Council and Leeds Central parliamentar ...

, the Liberals defended the seat and retained their total of four. Turnout fell to 34.4%, from 37.8% the year before. The reaction from the Labour leader, Albert King, was one of contentment: "This is a satisfactory evening for us, and the gains were more or less in line with what I expected". The Conservatives meanwhile were reported to be relieved, with their leader Frank Marshall commenting that the results were better than expected a couple of months ago, and pointing to a significantly reduced Labour vote in Burley from the year before as a reason for optimism for the future. The sixteen gains for Labour were enough to re-take control of the council from the Conservatives for its last years of existence.

Election result

The result had the following consequences for the total number of seats on the Council after the elections:

Ward results

References

{{Leeds Council elections, state=expanded 1972 English local elections

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

1970s in Leeds