United Kingdom local elections, 1998

← 1997

7 May 1998

1999 →

All 32 London boroughs, all 36 metropolitan boroughs,
10 out of 46 unitary authorities and 88 out of 238 English districts

	Majority party	Minority party	Third party

Leader	Tony Blair	William Hague	Paddy Ashdown
Party	Labour	Conservative	Liberal Democrat
Leader since	21 July 1994	19 June 1997	16 July 1988
Percentage	38%	32%	25%
Councils	94	8	14
Councils +/-	2	1	7
Councillors	2,240	1,085	853
Councillors +/-	88	256	114

Local elections took place in many parts of England on 7 May 1998. All London borough council seats were elected as well a third of the seats on each of the Metropolitan Boroughs. Some unitary authorities and District councils also had elections. There were no local elections in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

These elections took place on the same day as the referendum on establishing the Greater London Authority.

The governing Labour Party, contesting its first national elections since returning to government 12 months previously, enjoyed great success, now having control of 94 councils, with the second placed Liberal Democrats now controlling 14 and the opposition Conservatives (now led by William Hague) a mere eight.

In all 32 London boroughs the whole council was up for election.

All 36 English Metropolitan borough councils had one third of their seats up for election.

The whole of the Isle of Wight council was up for election.

In 9 English Unitary authorities one third of the council was up for election.

In 88 English district authorities one third of the council was up for election.

‡ New ward boundaries

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