1990 United Kingdom local elections

1990 United Kingdom local elections

← 1989 3 May 1990 1991 →
All 32 London boroughs, all 36 metropolitan boroughs, 116 out of 296 English districts and all 12 Scottish regions
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Margaret Thatcher Neil Kinnock Paddy Ashdown Party Conservative Labour Liberal Democrats Leader since 11 February 1975 2 October 1983 16 July 1988 Percentage 33% 44% 17% Councillors 9,020 8,920 3,265 Councillors +/- 222 284 78

The 1990 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 3 May 1990.^[1][2][3] They were the last local elections held before the resignation of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in November 1990.

The main opposition Labour Party gained 284 seats, bringing their number of councillors to 8,920, their highest since 1981. Their projected share of the vote was 44%, an increase of 2% from 1989.

The governing Conservative Party lost 222 seats, leaving them with 9,020 councillors. Their share of the vote was projected to be 33%, a fall of 3% from the previous year. This mounted further pressure on the government of Margaret Thatcher, which had been declining for a year following the introduction of the controversial poll tax, and was a major boost for opposition leader Neil Kinnock, whose Labour Party was enjoying a wide lead in the opinion polls with a general election no more than two years away.

The Liberal Democrats lost 78 seats and had 3,265 councillors after the elections. Their projected share of the vote was 17%.