United Kingdom local elections, 1997

← 1996

1 May 1997 (England)
21 May 1997 (Northern Ireland)

1998 →

All 34 non-metropolitan counties, 21 out of 46 unitary authorities,
1 out of 238 English districts, 1 sui generis authority
and all 26 Northern Irish districts

	Majority party	Minority party	Third party

Leader	Tony Blair	John Major	Paddy Ashdown
Party	Labour	Conservative	Liberal Democrat
Leader since	21 July 1994	28 November 1990	16 July 1988

Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.

The United Kingdom local elections took place on the 1 May, 1997. Elections took place for all of the English shire counties, some English unitary authorities and all of the Northern Ireland districts. The elections were held on the same day as the general election.

While the results were overshadowed by the landslide election of a Labour government, they did provide some comfort to the Conservative party. The Conservatives made some gains and were the largest party in the county council elections.

In 34 non-metropolitan counties the whole council was up for election.

† Elected as a "shadow authority" until 1 April 1998.

‡ Because areas of the county were due to become unitary authorities on 1 April 1998, the county councillors representing those areas had their terms extended by one year and no election was held.

These were the first elections to 19 more unitary authorities established by the Local Government Commission for England (1992). They acted as "shadow authorities" until 1 April 1998.

‡ New ward boundaries from predecessor authorities

In 2 unitary authorities one third of the council was up for election.

In 1 district the whole council was up for election.

‡ New ward boundaries

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