The 1988

Leeds City Council Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. Leeds has had a council since 1626, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1974 it has been a metropolitan borough council. It provides the ...

elections were held on Thursday, 5 May 1988, with one third of the council and a vacancy in

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

to be elected. Following national patterns, the newly merged

Social and Liberal Democrats The Liberal Democrats, colloquially known as the Lib Dems, are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1988. They are based at Liberal Democrat Headquarters, in Westminster, and the leader is Ed Davey. They are the third ...

, seen a substantial fall in vote to their lowest share in a decade, with former candidates standing against them as SDP in opposition to the merger. The SLD collapse was largely uniform, mostly transferring to Labour, except in northern wards – where support tended to disperse between the main parties and any minor candidate standing (usually

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

or the aforementioned breakaway SDP) – or wards in which Independents stood. Importantly for the SLD, their support in the three wards they were defending notably withstood that collapse, although hopes of retaking

Armley Armley is a district in the west of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It starts less than from Leeds city centre. Like much of Leeds, Armley grew in the Industrial Revolution and had several mills, one of which now houses the Leeds Industrial ...

after their councillor turned Independent were dashed by large swings away to allow a Labour gain there (with

Michael Meadowcroft Michael James Meadowcroft (born 6 March 1942) is a British author, politician and political affairs consultant. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds West from 1983 to 1987. Early life Meadowcroft was born in Halifax, West Yor ...

later alleging racist campaigning by Labour). Elsewhere, the incumbent Independent in

Pudsey Pudsey is a market town in the City of Leeds borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is located midway between Bradford city centre and Leeds city centre. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 25,393. History T ...

South was comfortably re-elected, tripling his majority there. As the chief recipient of lost SLD support, Labour won their highest share of vote since the council's inception in

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

, and their greatest vote and majority on the council since 1980's re-warding.

Election result

This result has the following consequences for the total number of seats on the council after the elections:

Ward results

By-elections between 1988 and 1990

References

{{Leeds Council elections 1988 English local elections

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

1980s in Leeds