1995 United Kingdom local elections

1995 United Kingdom local elections
← 1994 6 April 1995 (Scotland)
4 May 1995 (England & Wales)		 1996 →
All 36 metropolitan boroughs, all 14 unitary authorities,
all 274 English districts, 29 out of 32 Scottish council areas
and all 22 Welsh principal areas
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Tony Blair John Major Paddy Ashdown
Party Labour Conservative Liberal Democrats
Leader since 21 July 1994 27 November 1990 16 July 1988
Percentage 47% 25% 23%
Councillors +/- Increase 1,807 Decrease 2,018 Increase 487
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.

The 1995 United Kingdom local elections took place on Thursday 6 April 1995 in Scotland, and Thursday 4 May 1995 in England and Wales.[1][2] The Conservative Party lost over 2,000 councillors in the election, while the Labour Party won 48% of the vote, a record high for the party in local elections.[3]

The elections were the first to be contested under Labour's new leadership of Tony Blair, who had been elected the previous year following the sudden death of his predecessor John Smith.

This was also the first election of 22 Welsh and 14 English unitary authorities, creating shadow authorities which ran in parallel with existing councils until taking power in April 1996, except for the new Isle of Wight Council which took power immediately.[4]

  1. ^ Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael. Local Elections Handbook 1995 (PDF). Local Government Chronicle Elections Centre. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  2. ^ "Council compositions". The Elections Centre. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  3. ^ White, Michael (5 May 1995). "Tories buried in a landslide More than 2,000 seats lost as Labour reaps record poll and Lib-Dems surge". The Guardian. p. 1.
  4. ^ Rob Clements (10 May 1995). "The local elections of 4 May 1995". House of Commons Library. Research Paper 95/59. Retrieved 3 September 2011.