London County Council election, 1922

London County Council election, 1922

← 1919 2 March 1922 1925 →
124 Council Seats 63 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader George Hume Scott Lidgett Harry Gosling Party Municipal Reform Progressive Labour Leader since 1918 1918 1920 Leader's seat Greenwich Rotherhithe Kennington Last election 68 seats 40 seats 15 seats Seats won 82 26 16 Seat change 14 14 1
Colours denote the winning party.

An election to the County Council of London took place on 2 March 1922. It was the eleventh triennial election of the whole council. There were sixty dual member constituencies and one four member constituency, making a total of 124 seats. The council was elected by First Past the Post with each elector having two votes in the dual member seats.

The Prime Minister of the day was the Liberal David Lloyd George who led a Coalition Government that included the Unionist Party and those Liberals and Socialists who had broken from the main Liberal and Labour parties who sat in opposition. The Coalition was numerically dominated by the Unionists who were still 7 months away from overthrowing Lloyd George. The Coalition had been losing parliamentary seats in by-elections to both opposition parties including two in London to Labour; at Southwark South East by-election, 1921 and during the council election campaign at Camberwell North by-election, 1922 where one of the incumbent London Labour councillors Charles Ammon was elected to parliament on 20 February 1922. Ten days later, the electors of Camberwell North re-elected him to the County Council.

Although the Municipal Reform party had an overall majority, in line with national politics, they decided late in 1917 to form a war-time coalition to mirror the national government. Some Progressive Party members were offered chairmanships of committees. This coalition had continued after the war ended, but both parties, along with the Labour Party, fought the 1922 elections on separate platforms.

The leader of the Municipal Reform Party did not defend his seat, but was expected to remain a member when the new council appointed its new aldermen. There was no county wide electoral agreements between any of the parties, though clearly there had been some locally agreed situations. There were very few constituencies where all three parties stood two candidates. In the past, the Progressive Party had encompassed the Labour Party, with candidates running in harness. That situation had recently ended when former Progressive Party councillor Harry Gosling became leader of the Labour Party. In its place there were a few Progressive candidates running in harness with Municipal Reform candidates. Among Labour's candidates were members of the recently formed Communist Party, such as Albert Inkpin.