 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Colours denote the winning party with outright control | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Results by ward | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Regional elections were held in Scotland on Thursday 3 May 1990, as part of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, and were the first test of public opinion on the Community Charge, which had been introduced in Scotland in 1989.
| Parties | Votes [a] | Votes % | +/- | Wards | Net Gain/Loss | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | 729,922 | 44.0 | 223 | |||
| SNP | 372,770 | 21.8 | 42 | |||
| Conservative | 333,823 | 19.2 | 52 | |||
| Liberal Democrats | 147,122 | 8.0 | 40 | |||
| Independent | 76,516 | 5.0 | 73 | |||
| Scottish Green | 35,048 | 2.0 | 1 | |||
| Other Parties | 15,140 | 2.0 | 4 | |||
The Labour Party dominated the election, gaining the most seats and votes, even though their total vote was slightly down compared with 1986. This was the last election fought under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, and her Conservative Party suffered a decline of 13 seats, mainly due to the introduction of the unpopular Poll Tax 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 Malcolm Rifkind, who was portrayed to not care about the interests of Scotland.
The newly formed Social and Liberal Democrats (a merger of the SDP and Liberals) fared badly, dropping 6.4% of the vote that the Alliance had taken at the previous election. Despite this, they stayed stationary on 40 seats. The Scottish National Party, 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 gained their first ever councillor in the Highland region. Turnout was marginally up 0.3% to 45.9%. [2]
| Council | LAB | CON | SLD | SNP | GRN | OTH | Wards | Turnout | Details | Control | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borders | 0 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 22 | 42.6% | Details | Independent hold | |
| Central | 22 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 34 | 49.1% | Details | Labour hold | |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 10 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 19 | 35 | 44.4% | Details | Independent hold | |
| Fife | 30 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 46 | 46.5% | Details | Labour hold | |
| Grampian | 19 | 10 | 14 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 57 | 41% | Details | No overall control hold | |
| Highland | 10 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 35 | 52 | 42.9% | Details | Independent hold | |
| Lothian | 34 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 49 | 50.2% | Details | Labour hold | |
| Orkney | 0 | - | - | - | - | 24 | 24 | ??% | Details | Independent hold | |
| Shetland | 4 | - | - | - | - | 21 | 25 | ??% | Details | Independent hold | |
| Strathclyde | 89 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 103 | 45% | Details | Labour hold | |
| Tayside | 18 | 14 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 47.8% | Details | No overall control hold | |
| Western Isles | 0 | - | - | - | - | 30 | 30 | ??% | Details | Independent hold | |
The 2001 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 7 June 2001, four years after the previous election on 1 May 1997, to elect 659 members to the House of Commons. The governing Labour Party led by Prime Minister Tony Blair was re-elected to serve a second term in government with another landslide victory with a 165-seat majority, returning 412 members of Parliament versus 418 from the previous election, a net loss of six seats, although with a significantly lower turnout than before—59.4%, compared to 71.6% at the previous election.
The 1979 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the House of Commons. The election was held following the defeat of the Labour government in a no-confidence motion on 28 March 1979, six months before the Parliament was due for dissolution in October 1979.
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of the Labour Party in 1945, with a majority of 144 seats and the first of two consecutive landslide victories.
The 1987 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive general election victory for the Conservative Party, who won a majority of 102 seats and second landslide under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the Earl of Liverpool in 1820 to lead a party into three successive electoral victories.
The politics of Scotland operate within the constitution of the United Kingdom, of which Scotland is a country. Scotland is a democracy, being represented in both the Scottish Parliament and the Parliament of the United Kingdom since the Scotland Act 1998. Most executive power is exercised by the Scottish Government, led by the first minister of Scotland, the head of government in a multi-party system. The judiciary of Scotland, dealing with Scots law, is independent of the legislature and the Scottish Government, and is headed by the Lord Advocate who is the principal legal adviser to the Scottish Government. Scots law is primarily determined by the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government shares limited executive powers, notably over reserved matters, with the Scotland Office, a British government department led by the Secretary of State for Scotland.
The 2005 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 5 May 2005, to elect 646 members to the House of Commons. The governing Labour Party led by Prime Minister Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, with Blair becoming the second Labour leader after Harold Wilson to form three majority governments. However, its majority fell to 66 seats; the majority it won four years earlier had been of 167 seats. The UK media interpreted the results as an indicator of a breakdown in trust in the government, and especially in Blair.
The Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party is part of the UK Conservative Party active in Scotland. It holds 5 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons, 31 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and comprises 206 of Scotland's 1,226 local councillors.
The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.
The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999. Local elections in Scotland fell on the same day.
The Liberal Democrats are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1988. They are based at Liberal Democrat Headquarters, in Westminster, and the current leader of the party is Ed Davey. They are the third-largest party in the United Kingdom, with 72 members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons. They have 78 members of the House of Lords, four members of the Scottish Parliament, one member in the Welsh Senedd, and more than 3,000 local council seats. The party holds a twice-per-year Liberal Democrat Conference, at which party policy is formulated. In contrast to its main opponents' rules, the Liberal Democrats grant all members attending its Conference the right to vote on party policy, under a one member, one vote system. The party also allows its members to vote online for its policies and in the election of a new leader.
Elections for the Scottish district councils were held in 1977.
The 1990 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 3 May 1990. They were the last local elections held before the resignation of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in November 1990.
The 1989 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 4 May 1989 in England and Wales, and Wednesday 17 May 1989 in Northern Ireland. The Labour Party had the highest projected national vote share, but the Conservative Party, in power at Westminster, gained the most seats. On the same day, there was a parliamentary by-election in the Vale of Glamorgan constituency in Wales; Labour won the seat from the Conservatives.
The 1994 Scottish regional elections were held in Scotland on 5 May 1994, as part of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. These were the last elections before 29 new mainland unitary authorities, established by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, came into effect. The councils up for election were last contested in 1990 Scottish regional elections, and vote and seat changes are compared to the 1990 results.
Local elections were held in Scotland on 7 May 1992, to elect members to all 53 district councils. It was the last local election held under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which had established the two-tier system of regions and districts. Regional and district councils were abolished in 1996, and replaced with 29 new mainland unitary authorities under the terms of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994.
Elections for the Scottish district councils were held in 1980.
Elections to Strathclyde Regional Council were held on Thursday 6 May 1982, on the same day as the eight other Scottish regional elections. This was the third election to the regional council following the local government reforms in the 1970s.
Elections to Strathclyde Regional Council were held on Thursday 3 May 1990, on the same day as the eight other Scottish regional elections. This was the fifth election to the regional council following the local government reforms in the 1970s.
The sixth and last election to Tayside Regional Council was held on 5 May 1994 as part of the wider 1994 Scottish regional elections. The election saw the Scottish National Party overtaking Labour to become the council's largest party, and following the election the SNP formed a minority administration. The Conservatives lost 10 seats and became the third largest party. 8 weeks later, leader of the council Lena Graham resigned 'for personal reasons' and Ewan Dow took over as council leader.
Elections to Aberdeenshire Council took place on Thursday 5 May 2022 on the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections. As with other Scottish council elections, it was held using single transferable vote (STV) – a form of proportional representation – in which multiple candidates are elected in each ward and voters rank candidates in order of preference.
  | This Elections in Scotland related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
