Regional elections were held in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
on Thursday 3 May 1990, as part of the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973
The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered local government in Scotland on 16 May 1975.
The Act followed and largely implemented the report of the Royal Commission on Local Gove ...
, and were the first test of public opinion on the
Community Charge
The Community Charge, commonly known as the poll tax, was a system of taxation introduced by Margaret Thatcher's government in replacement of domestic rates in Scotland from 1989, prior to its introduction in England and Wales from 1990. It pr ...
, which had been introduced in Scotland in 1989.
National results
, -
!colspan=2, Parties
!Votes
!Votes %
!+/-
!Wards
!Net
Gain/Loss
, -
,
, 729,922
, 44.0
,
, 223
,
, -
,
, 372,770
, 21.8
,
, 42
,
, -
,
, 333,823
, 19.2
,
, 52
,
, -
,
, 147,122
, 8.0
,
, 40
,
, -
,
, 76,516
, 5
,
, 73
,
, -
,
, 35,048
, 2
,
, 1
,
, -
,
, Other Parties
, 15,140
, 2
,
, 4
,
, -
Party performance
The
Labour Party dominated the election, gaining the most seats and votes, even though their total vote was slightly down compared with
1986
The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles.
**Spain and Portugal en ...
. This was the last election fought under the leadership of
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
, and her
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 ...
suffered a decline of 13 seats, mainly due to the introduction of the unpopular
Poll Tax
A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources.
Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments f ...
in 1989. The Conservative Government had recently given tax concessions to ratepayers in England and Wales, excluding Scotland, with criticism extended in particular to then-
Secretary of State for Scotland
The secretary of state for Scotland ( gd, Rùnaire Stàite na h-Alba; sco, Secretar o State fir Scotland), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the Unit ...
Malcolm Rifkind
Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind (born 21 June 1946) is a British politician who served in the cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1986 to 1997, and most recently as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament fro ...
, who was portrayed to not care about the interests of Scotland.
The newly formed
Social and Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats (commonly referred to as the Lib Dems) are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. Since the 1992 general election, with the exception of the 2015 general election, they have been the third-largest UK political ...
(a merger of the
SDP and
Liberals) fared badly, dropping 6.4% of the vote that the
Alliance
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
had taken at the previous election. Despite this, they stayed stationary on 40 seats.
The
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from th ...
, once again the second-largest party in terms of vote share, benefitted from modest gains to take almost 22% of the vote. The
Scottish Greens
The Scottish Greens (also known as the Scottish Green Party; gd, Pàrtaidh Uaine na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Green Pairtie) are a green political party in Scotland. The party has seven MSPs in the Scottish Parliament as of May 2021. As of the ...
gained their first ever councillor in the Highland region. Turnout was marginally up 0.3% to 45.9%.
Results by council area
References
Ele
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...
May 1990 events in the United Kingdom
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