1981 Greater Manchester County Council election

1981 UK local government election March 2020 March 2020 March 2020 Local elections to Greater Manchester County Council, a Metropolitan County Council encompassing Greater Manchester, were held on 7 May 1981, resulting in large swings to Labour, giving them control of the council. This would be the last election to the Greater Manchester County Council, with metropolitan county councils being scrapped on 31 March 1986 under the Local Government Act 1985 by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. The councils' abolition came following several high-profile clashes between mostly Labour metropolitan county councils and the Conservative government over issues including overspending and high rates charging. Results Overall Results Greater Manchester County Council election, 1981p.3 Labour Party (UK) 78 49.6 15.2 Conservative Party (UK) 19 30.6 25.5 Liberal Party (UK) 9 18.4 10.9 Independent (politician) 0 0.0 0.2 0.1 Green Party (UK) 0 0.0 0.2 0.2 Other parties 0 0.0 1.0 0.7 Borough summary Results of the Greater Manchester County Council election, 1981by Metropolitan Borough yes |- class="unsortable" align="centre" !rowspan=2 align="left"|Borough ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs !rowspan=2|TotalCllrs |- class="unsortable" align="center" !colspan=2 bgcolor="Labour Party (UK)" | Labour !colspan=2 bgcolor="Conservative and Unionist Party (UK)"| Conservative !colspan=2 bgcolor="Liberal Party (UK)" | Liberal !colspan=2 bgcolor="Green Party (UK)" | Green !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| Independent !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| Others |- |align="left"|Bolton |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|49.0 |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|7 |34.4 |2 |16.2 |1 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |0.4 |0 |10 |- |align="left"|Bury |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|49.6 |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|5 |34.0 |1 |14.2 |0 |0.0 |0 |2.3 |0 |0.4 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Manchester |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|55.7 |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|16 |27.7 |3 |15.0 |1 |0.5 |0 |0.0 |0 |1.1 |0 |20 |- |align="left"|Oldham |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|50.5 |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|7 |30.5 |1 |18.0 |1 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |1.0 |0 |9 |- |align="left"|Rochdale |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|43.5 |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|5 |29.7 |0 |24.3 |2 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |2.5 |0 |7 |- |align="left"|Salford |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|59.8 |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|11 |23.8 |0 |15.3 |1 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |1.1 |0 |12 |- |align="left"|Stockport |29.0 |3 |bgcolor="lightblue"|37.7 |bgcolor="lightblue"|6 |32.1 |2 |0.7 |0 |0.0 |0 |0.4 |0 |11 |- |align="left"|Tameside |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|57.3 |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|9 |29.7 |0 |11.9 |0 |0.6 |0 |0.0 |0 |0.4 |0 |9 |- |align="left"|Trafford |36.6 |3 |bgcolor="lightblue"|43.1 |bgcolor="lightblue"|6 |20.4 |0 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |9 |- |align="left"|Wigan |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|65.8 |bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|12 |16.5 |0 |14.5 |1 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |3.2 |0 |13 |- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" |align="left"| Total |49.6 |78 |30.6 |19 |18.4 |9 |0.2 |0 |0.2 |0 |1.0 |0 |106 |- |} References Greater Manchester 1981