The Local Elections

Abstract

EIGHTEEN YEARS of Conservative government ended as it had begun—on the first Thursday in May, local election day. Only twice in history have the general and local elections been held simultaneously. On the first occasion in 1979 the Labour Prime Minister, James Callaghan, had little choice over the election date. His party's pact with the Liberals had crumbled, leaving a minority government vulnerable to an opposition vote of no confidence. The Conservatives under Mrs Thatcher swept to power, winning not only a Commons majority but also political control of many local authorities across Britain. Now, with a pleasing symmetry the wheel has turned full circle. John Major decided that local election day 1997 offered the Conservatives their best chance of securing a fifth successive term, but instead it proved to be their electoral nemesis. Inevitably, in both 1979 and 1997 the local election campaign was overshadowed by the general election. Yet these 'forgotten elections' provide unique opportunities to further our understanding of electoral behaviour and the development of party competition in Britain. In this article we shall examine a number of different aspects of the 1997 local elections. First, we review the results and, crucially, frame our discussion within the context of what has been a decade long Conservative decline in local government. The party now begins a period in opposition in far worse shape in local government than ever before. Second, we will use the fact of simultaneous elections to look for evidence of differential voting. Did some parties perform better in one form of election than another? Was there a consistent pattern of voting or were there local variations? Did voters turn out to vote in equal numbers for both types of election? Although only parts of Britain had local elections the contests were sufficiently widespread to allow such comparisons. Finally, we shall identify the main changes in the pattern of voter behaviour between 1979 and 1997, and assess what they might tell us about political attitudes and party loyalties.